Rise of a Striker
by Xire
Summary: Like the title says. The Rise of a Striker. Only more then just Lass getting his 4th job. He ventures with Ronan and Arme, and encounters a girl that seemingly knows him. She says something that's very concerning about Kaze'Aze...
1. The Beginning

Ok this is my first try at a GC (Grand Chase for those of you who don't play the game) fic. Anyways, as the title would suggest, this fic is Lass's journey to become Striker. But it's better then it sounds, trust me. Arme and Ronan come with him on his quest, and there's a strange girl that attacks Lass who seems to know him. She mentions some very concerning news about Kaze'Aze. This is written in First Person, Lass's POV. (Because me+3rd person=epic fail)

_**Requirements for reading this story**_: Have some knowledge of GC. But then again, you could just Wiki it if you don't want to play the game XD

Ya I know I should probably be working on my other story...but this has been nagging my mind for the past few days so I decided to write it down so that maybe it'll stop bugging me ;P

Hope you enjoy! ^^

* * *

The castle that those of the Grand Chase call 'home' was a large and spacious, plenty of opportunity to hide and not be found easily. One of which, I was currently utilizing. There was a courtyard that was large enough for the whole of the Chase to practice separately without running into one another. There was a sort of hallway that ran next to it with walls that had wide, glass free windows. One of which I was standing by, hiding in the shadows, watching the rest of Chase. Elesis, Arme, and Lire had teamed up in a match against Ronan and Ryan. I'm sure they would've gotten Jin to join their match, but said fighter was currently watching Amy practice her singing with an odd sort of dreamy look on his face. I don't even want to know what he's thinking.

I began to make my way toward the roof. I might've joined them, had I felt more like I fit in with them. They all seemed to be here simply because they wanted to help protect the world, while I had crimes to atone for. Although Lire and Arme had told me several times that it wasn't my fault because I had been possessed, I still felt guilty. Upon reaching the roof, I laid down and just stared at the sky. It didn't help that I couldn't remember anything before I had been save from Kaze'Aze by the others. Scratch that, I could remember one thing: my name.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"There you are!" I don't know how much time had passed before Arme's voice snapped me out of my daze. I sat up and looked behind to see said mage turn around and shout to whoever was down below, "Hey Ronan, I found him! He was on the roof the whole time!" She then turned back to me. "The Knight Master wants to see you, you know."

I sighed and stood up, brushing the dust from my clothes. "Alright where is she?" I asked, walking to the edge of the roof.

"She's in the great hall. Oh and she looked pretty serious, so be careful."

"When does she _not_ look serious?" I muttered under my breath as I jumped off the roof.

"Show off!" I heard Arme yell from the roof as I landed easily.

I just rolled my eyes and headed towards the Great Hall. When I was almost there, I was stopped by Ronan. "What is it?" I asked him.

He just smiled and said "Good luck." And then walked off. I watched him leave, staring at him with an odd expression. 'Good luck'? What are we, sending me to my doom? I shook my head and entered the Great Hall, where I was met with a bit of surprise.

"Knight Master, what's going on?" I asked as I stared at the unfamiliar person that was standing not too far from the Knight Master. He was old looking, and seemed as if the only thing that was keeping him standing was a Special looking Katana. I think I've heard of him, he's the Assassin Guild Leader, I believe. And his weapon was a Nodachi. But what would he want with seeing me?

"So you are Lass." He said with a slight smile.

"Yes sir...if you don't mind me asking...but why are you here?"

He smiled and came over to me slowly. He handed me a worn looking scroll. "He who completes this mission will receive the right to under go the test to become my successor."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I had finished packing and had just the castle grounds when I heard an all to familiar spell: "Stone Curse!" Before I could even jump out of the way, it hit me.

"Good work Arme, maybe now we can actually catch up with him." I heard Ronan's voice behind me. Great, what did they want? I frowned. Or I would have if I could move.

"Guess what Lass!" Arme's voice said in a Cherry voice. "We're coming with you!" She paused. "And if you say no you'll just stay here all day!" I think she was enjoying this. "So what do you say?"

"Arme, he can't move so I doubt we'll get an answer anytime soon." Ronan again. You know, I think the we staying behind me deliberately.

"But then he'd just run off!"

"If he says no you can just curse him again, can't you?"

"Your right!" At that moment I felt the ability was to move was mine once again. As such I turned to face the two. "So, are you going to let us come with you or do you want to be cursed again?" Arme said, an odd smile on her face.

I sighed. "Well I guess I have no choice but to let you two come with me. But what about the others?"

"They're off on another mission. Now where is our first stop?" Ronan asked.

"The cyclops over in the Ruins of Ellia. We'll have to take a boat." I informed them.

"Unless..." Ronan muttered. What did he-

But before I could finish my train of thought, said kanavan knight summoned his dragon. Arme screamed and hid behind me, clinging to shirt. I tensed a bit, but that was only because her nails were digging into my skin. "Get off would you? He's just showing off." I said somewhat annoyed.

The mage did as I told her and proceeded to promptly give Ronan a smack in the head with her wand. "Don't scare me like that!" She practically yelled at him. He just laughed a little while rubbing his head.

I shook my head. "So you intend to have us fly on that?" I asked skeptically.

"Well, why not? It's certainly faster then going by boat." Ronan pointed out.

"I guess..." I muttered and Arme gave a small squeak.

So we all boarded Ronan's dragon and took to the air, with said Dragon owner at front. myself in the middle and terrified mage last. All because he said that he didn't want to be distracted by her holding onto his clothes. I don't believe it for one second. I think he's plotting something...esh, if I'm not cut in two by the time we reach Ellia because of how tight arme's gripping me it'll be a miracle.

* * *

Ok and that's the end of the first chapter! Hope you enjoy it~

Oh, and because I'm to lazy to make Lass explain what everyone is wearing (i don't think he'd really notice, anyway) I'll tell you.

Lass- Meiser upper and lower armor, Nobels shoes, and angelic white helm (no gloves)

Ronan- Kanavan R.G.M. Upper, lower, gloves, shoes and Spell Knight's Raider Helm

Arme- Moonlight helm, Mage General's Upper Armor, Valkyrie Gloves, Luna Lower Armor, Mage's Qupao shoes

I had fun in the shop dressing up these three to see what I like best XD Now I would have had Lass wear the striker outfit (because it's my fav outfit for him) but he's not a striker yet in the story so I couldn't have him wear it TT_TT Anyways, see you next time!

-Xire


	2. The Girl

Ellia Continent. It felt like years since I had been here, when in reality it had probably only been a few months. We landed near the ruins and I was somehow still in one piece. "Arme let go we're here." Said mage opened her eyes and slowly let me go. Sheesh, why did she have to grip so tightly? I swear I'm going to have a bruise for a week.

Ronan being Ronan helped the mage down while I just jumped. "So where is the cyclops?" Arme asked once she was on solid ground.

"Probably at the very bottom." Ronan suggested. "It seems like the most logical place for a cyclops to hide."

I just nodded in agreement. "Alright, lets go." I said as walked to wards the direction of the ruins, the other two following. It took a little time, but we finally reached the our destination.

The ruins was a tall, worn down looking thing that might have at one time been a building. Most likely it was used by some sort of ancient civilization for some sort of purpose. But what ever that had been, the building was too far gone to even remotely be able to tell.

"_I heard that there's skeletons that were re-animated in there."_

"_How pleasant."_

"_Ya I think that they're fallen warriors from some lost civilization."_

"_Wanna go check it out?" _

"_You know me all to well, Lass."_

"_Well what do you expect fr-"_

"Lass are you alright?"

"Hey Bermesiah to Lass! WAKE UP!"

"Geez Arme what the heck was that for?!" I said, glaring slightly at said mage as she had yelled in my ear.

"Well excuse me for trying to get your attention!" Arme huffed slightly, folding her arms and frowning.

"Are you alright? You were just staring into space with this blank look on your face. We were started to get worried;" Ronan began, "it was almost like you were-"

But I cut him off. "Like I was possessed?" I said darkly.

"I wasn't going to say that." Ronan protested.

"But you were thinking it." I muttered. "C'mon, let's get this over with." I said, walking inside the ruins. I didn't show them the confusion that I felt from the conversation that I had remembered(?). I think it's remembered anyway. It was me and girl talking, and we sounded quite young. But I don't know what either of us looked like or where we were exactly, but I'm pretty sure we were talking about the Ruins.

"_What do you expect fr-" _What had I been about to say? How did I know that girl? Or better yet, what was even her name? But try as I might, I just couldn't make the memory any clearer, which was making me quite frustrated. As such, I took my frustration out on the skeleton knight that I had been fighting, which resulted in a bit of overkill, considering that I was still tying to kill it even after it had fallen apart. It wasn't until Arme smacked me with her staff that I realized the it was dead.

"Lass, are you sure your alright?" Ronan asked. "You seem a bit-"

But the knight was cut short as a somewhat malicious voice rent the air. "Alright? Why would he be alight? He's nothing but a filthy traitor!" Before I could locate the source of the voice, I felt a sharp cut on my cheek. The next thing I knew was to sharp looking blades were coming towards my head. I just managed to catch the blades with my claws before they could make a very painful connection with my skull. And as such I managed to finally spot my attacker: a girl that looked closer to about Jin's age, with furious red eyes and short white hair.

"What's your problem?!" I asked her, a bit annoyed. Who was she to call me a traitor?!

"What's my problem?! I'll tell you what's my problem!" She released her blades from my claws and proceeded to try and attack me again. She was faster then anyone I had seen, and I was starting have trouble keeping up with her movements. "You betrayed our Lady Kaze'Aze that's my problem!" She yelled, and before I could do anything, she kicked me in the stomach so hard that it sent me flying into one of the already weak walls. Because the wall had been so weak and I had hit it so hard, it actually crumbled on top of me.

The next thing I remember was hearing "Cure!" and "Holy Inferno!" I opened my eyes slowly to reveal Arme and Ronan kneeling on either side of me, as I was laying on the ground.

"Lass!" Arme exclaimed, sounding relieved. I sat up slowly, wincing from the soreness that seemed to encompass my whole body. Then, to my surprise, Arme hugged me. Why did she do that? But as quickly as she did it, she let go, leaving me confused. She seemed a little embarrassed.

"How do you feel Lass?" Ronan asked me, preventing me from asking the mage why she had just done what she had.

"Ug, sore." I responded.

"Not too surprising. No matter the wall your thrown into, it's going to hurt. Now," the knight stood up, "we should probably rest here for the night, as it seems the monsters have cleared this part of the area."

A little while later we had most of the camp set up, all we needed was the fire, which Arme was attending to as Ronan was dressing the remaining wounds that I had after the healing spells.

"Do you know her?" Ronan asked.

I shook my head. "I've never seen her before. But what she said..." I trailed off.

"Your worried about Kaze'Aze, right?" I just nodded. "We defeated her, remember?"

"I know, but...ah never mind. I'm probably worrying over nothing." I consented.

"That's the spirit!" Arme said happily, the fire crackling merrily behind her. She had somehow managed to set a pile of the skeleton's bones on fire. It's the wonders of magic, I suppose.

The rest of the night was actually uneventful, as all we did was eat (Arme had somehow managed to pack all the food we apparently need in that tiny backpack of hers), and then we all fell asleep. I don't know about the others, but it didn't take me long to achieve sleep. My guess is because I was sore and tired.

"_Tired already, Lass? Some ___ ____ you are."_

"_Hey give me a break! I was ___ all last night!" _

"_Sorry __, I forgot about that." _

_A sigh. "It's alright, La___."_

_A campfire. Two kids sitting around a campfire, one male, one female._

"_So when do you think we'll be old enough?"_

"_I dunno, but I think I heard ___ and ___ say somewhere between fifteen and eighteen."_

"_Awwwww but that's so far away! I don't want to wait that long Lassy!"_

"_I'm pretty sure ____'s ____-____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ yet. ____ still building ____ ___. And don't call me Lassy!" _

"_But it's so cute Lassy!" _

"_Grrrr...get back here!"_

_Two kids running around the fire, the boy chasing the girl. They were both laughing. _

I woke slowly, to find my self incredibly stiff and somewhat frustrated. What was up with that...memory. Ya, I'm pretty sure it was a memory. But what was frustrating was all the gaps in it. I sighed slightly. Well, at least now I know that the girl's name starts with 'La'. I sat up slowly and stretched. Ow. Ok, not the brightest thing to do...

"Ah your awake."

"Huh?" I looked over to the source of the voice, to find that it was Ronan.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Ugh, sore." It was then that I noticed the blanket that was on me. "Where...?" I asked, holding up said blanket.

"Arme." Ronan replied simply. "She thought you looked cold."

I blinked. Ok then...there was silence for a few moments while I looked around for said mage. "Speaking of which, where is she?"

"She said she was going to look around." But even as Ronan said this, a scream shot through the air. An all to familiar scream.

I sighed and stood up, slipping my claws on in the process, while Ronan brought out his Tyrfing. Without a word, we both ran off in the direction of Arme's scream. As it turned out we didn't have to go far, as the mage crashed into me, sending us both to the ground. "Arme, watch where you're going, will you?"

"Sorry." It was then that I realized how close her face was to mine, ruffly about and inch away. I felt my face start become uncomfortably warm. I saw her face go red as well.

"Well, I think I'll just be going...." Came Ronan's voice. There was a hint of a smirk in it.

I narrowed my eyes. "Death to the knight?" I asked.

"Definitely." We both knew what he was implying.

And with that we both got up and ran, weapons ready, for the laughing, yet fleeing, knight.

-Xire


	3. The Cyclops

Instead of actually catching the Knight, we almost ran into him. "What's the deal?" I asked.

"That." Ronan stated, pointing forwards. Looking in the direction he was pointing, I spotted the cyclops charging towards us.

"That's the thing that attacked me!" Arme exclaimed before starting to beat Ronan on the head with her staff. "This is for earlier!"

I sighed. "Arme, can't you wait to beat him up? I think there's something that's a little bit more important at the moment."

The mage sighed but complied. "Alright, alright I guess you're right." She smacked Ronan one more time before facing the monster that was becoming too close for comfort. "Let do this!" She then raced forward, with Ronan and I following.

The cyclops was slow and not all that smart. He didn't have all that many attacks, but he was big enough that they were hard to avoid if you couldn't get behind him easily and actually hurt when he did manage to hit you, no matter how slightly. It didn't help that he had really think skin.

I felt kind've bad for Ronan, as he couldn't shadow dash or teleport through the monster. He was probably the one that was the worst off.

"_I heard there's this giant monster at the bottom."_

"_Really? You wanna check it out? Maybe he'd be fun to tease."_

"_I don't see why not."_

"_Perfect." A large, mischievous smile. "Race you down Lassy!" A girl running away._

"_I thought I told you not to call me that!" A boy chasing after._

"_This is fun!" A girl's laughter. A pause, then, "LASS-_

"...watch out!"

"Huh?" I looked up just in time to see a giant fist come down and make contact with my stomach, and then to find myself landing several feet away, and not at all gently. Okay, remembering things in the middle of battle was _not_ a good idea.

"Holy Inferno!"

I sat up slowly. "Thanks." I muttered.

"_You alright?" A worried tone._

"_I...think so." Struggling to get up, but falling back down. "I don't think I can walk."_

"_What are we going to do? It's coming back!" The girl hugging the boy._

_A second boy, the monster's defeat. Blue hair._

I blinked. "Ronan?"

"Yes?"

"...never mind." Dumb idea, it couldn't have been him.

"Right...anyways, do you think you can still fight?" The Knight asked, looking somewhat worried.

I smirked and stood up, just in time to see Arme do perform Fire Storm on the cyclops. "I'm not going down that easily. Shall we?" I motioned towards the monster. Ronan nodded, and we both charged back into the fight.

It took a few minutes, but after a round of unlimited blade and Ronan's Valkyrie, it was finally beaten. But there wasn't much time to celebrate, as Arme came over and promptly smacked me in the head with her staff. "What was that for?!" I asked, slightly irritated.

"What do you think you're doing spacing off in the middle of battle?! You could've gotten yourself killed!" Arme huffed.

"Right...sorry..." I muttered.

Arme opened her mouth to say something, but Ronan cut her off. "So what next?" He asked.

I looked at the scroll. "Defeat the Stone Golem in the upper floor."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

We were almost to the top floor, and had decided to stop and camp for the night. Ronan and Arme were sleeping, but I didn't much feel like it, not anymore. Not after that dream...

_The three kids had left the ruins, the blue haired boy and the girl helping the silver haired boy to walk. They returned to their home, which seemed like a place where a large group of people lived like a family, even if they weren't related by blood. As they entered the building they were stopped by a female adult._

"_Good work, Ro___" The woman said, patting the blue haired boy on the head. She then turned to the other two kids. "What do you think you two think you two were doing running off like that?! And look what happened to Lass! You know what he's been chosen for!"The woman's face was slightly mad from anger. "Go to your rooms, all of you."_

_It was now later in the day, and the girl and the silver haired boy were sitting on the boy's bed. His leg had been looked at, and it turned out to be only a mild sprain._

"_Something wrong?" The girl asked._

_The boy sighed. "What makes you think something is wrong?"_

"_You've got that look on your face that means something is bothering you. Trust me, I would know."_

_The boy sighed heavily. "Of course you would, I can't hide anything from you." There was a long silence, then, "It's just that I don't want to be chosen for anything." _

"_Oh c'mon it's a great privilege! You should consider yourself special to have been chosen for _____ ____ ____! The Best I can do is be in the army!"_

"_If you want it so badly then you be it." The boy said darkly. _

"_You know I can't. Once the decision is made, there's no changing it." She hugged him slightly. "But I will miss your company." _

"Lass? HEY BERMESIAH TO LASS!"

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a sharp smack in the head, courtesy of Arme's staff. "Why do you keep hitting me with that thing?" I asked, somewhat irritated.

"I've been trying to get you attention for the last five minutes! What else was I supposed to do?" She plopped herself down in front of me. "So what we you thinking about? You seemed pretty deep in thought."

"I thought you were asleep." I muttered, looking away.

"I woke up." She paused. "Now answer my question!"

"What if I don't want to?" I asked, looking at her.

"Hmmm...well, I could Stone Curse you until you decide to talk. Or would you prefer a Firestorm?" She suggested, figuring her staff.

"If you Firestorm me I'll be too crispy to do anything." She pouted and I sighed. "It's nothing anyways."

"If it was nothing then you wouldn't mind telling me."

I sighed again and looked at the camp fire. "It's just that I've been remembering things lately..." I trailed off.

"Well isn't that a good thing?" The mage asked.

"I'm not so sure anymore." I muttered.

"Well why not?"

I didn't say anything at first, because I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to tell her what exactly it was that I was starting to remember. I decided to try and change the subject instead. "So why did you and Ronan decide to come with me, anyways?" I asked, looking at her.

"Simple, we were worried about you!" The mage smiled slightly, and for some reason I felt my cheeks grow hot. I looked away once again.

"Why would you be worried? I'm quite capable of taking care of myself." I said, looking at her out of the corner of my eye.

"Well, you're always by yourself, and you don't say much. Because of this we don't know how you're doing. For all we know you could be secretly cutting yourself and planning to suicide someday." She explained.

I shook my head. "That's going a bit extreme, Arme..." I sighed. "I've just never felt that I quite fit in with the rest of the chase. I mean all of you are in it to protect the world and I'm just around to try and make up for all the wrongs I've done."

Arme leaned closer to me. "How many times do we have to tell you that it wasn't-" But at that moment something pushed us together, causing our lips to touch. We stayed like that for a moment, and I found myself placing my hand on her cheek and closing my eyes. I leaned forward into her as she did the same, while one of her hands was slowly embedding itself in my hair.

It wasn't until we heard footsteps that either of us realized what was going on. When we did, we quickly pulled away from each other. Arme immediately turned around and proceeded to chase after Ronan, who was, of course, the culprit. But I just sat there, still slightly shocked.

I touched my lips slightly; I could still feel Arme's lips on mine. They had been soft, warm and...comforting, in an odd way. I sighed and turned to watch to see if Arme had caught Ronan yet or not just in time to see her Firestorm him. The Knight actually managed to avoid most of it, but still came out a little chard around the edges. I shook my head. I guess now it was my turn to bandage him.

"You like her, don't you?" Ronan asked as I was bandaging him. I didn't respond. "I knew it! You do. Know you just have to admit it. After all, the both of you were blushing pretty madly." He paused. "So aren't you going to do anything to get back at me like Arme has?"

"Oh don't worry, it's coming. I'm just waiting until we get back to the castle to enact it." I replied.

"Do I even want to know what your planning?" I just smirked slightly in reply, which caused the knight to shiver slightly. "You know, some how I think I prefer Arme's retaliation over yours..." He muttered, which only made me laugh.

* * *

lol it's Crispy Ronan time! lol sorry, I just had to put that in. It's a bit of a joke between my sister and I as I used to Fire Storm her Ronan all the time in PvP XD

-Xire


	4. The Name

The Battle with the Stone Golem took awhile, more so then the Cyclops. Seemed smarter too, but not by much. The thing that was the most annoying was the minions, the mini stone golems. You have to watch the giant one, but also watch out for the smaller ones as they could come and attack you while you weren't paying attention. Eventually though Arme managed to get the minions grouped together and take them out with a Firestorm, which let us focus on on the giant. We eventually had him beat, but we had several 'flying lessons' as Arme put it, courtesy of how the monster would spin around and create a giant tornado around itself as we were fighting. This was not at all pleasant, as we didn't exactly land on the ground very gently. But we did it, and came out only a little worse for wear. As soon as it was defeated, Arme sighed heavily and sat down.

"Phew, why don't we sit down and take a break, shall we?" She said, smiling slightly.

"I wouldn't mind-" I began, but before I could finish my sentence, the whole of the ruins started to shake and tremble. "Actually, I say we should get out of here."

Ronan nodded, and Arme stood up reluctantly. "Stupid ruins! Why can't they decide to collapse after we're out?!" The mage said, pouting.

"We'd better get going, because I doubt that these ruins will wait for us to take our time in getting out." Ronan remarked as the ground gave an unsteady shake.

So with that agreed upon we began to run towards the exit of the ruins. But getting out would not be easy. Pieces of the ceiling kept falling, trying to flatten us, but that wasn't the worst of it.

I was in the lead as we ran, and looked behind to make sure that the other two hadn't fallen behind. They were still there, only a small distance behind. I smirked slightly. "Better hurry up you two!"

"Well excuse me if we all can't be as fast as you!" Arme said, waving her staff in an annoyed sort of way.

I laughed slightly and faced forward once again, only to be forced to come to an abrupt stop. The reason being was that the floor immediately in front of me had been replaced with what seemed to be a bottomless darkness. A few feet away, though, was another piece of the floor. It was then that the others decided to catch up, in the form of crashing into me. In turn, this caused me to lose my balance and I was forced to jump to the adjacent floor piece to avoid falling to an inevitable doom. Once I was on it I turned around to face the others. "Watch it, will you?!"

Ronan looked like he was about to say something, most likely apologize, but Arme beat him to it. "Well that's what you get for stopping so abruptly!" She yelled.

"C'mon, let's go." Ronan said as he proceeded to run and jump onto the platform that I was on. I looked forward to see how the rest of the floor was, and it turned out that there were several more platforms that we would have to jump to before we would once again have a continues floor. I sighed and nodded.

I was the first to reach the other side, with Ronan only moments behind me, and Arme came shortly after him. "Well that wasn't so bad...I actually wouldn't mind doing it again." I said, having liked the challenge.

Arme huffed. "Easy for you to say! You're actually good at-"But she was cut off mid-sentence as the ground that she was standing on started to fall away, causing the mage to fall backwards.

"Arme!" I yelled, accompanied by Ronan. I reached out and quickly grabbed the mage's wrist and pulled her back up, and held her closely.

"Let's get going, unless you two want to cuddle there all day." Ronan said, walking off.

Well that certainty got a reaction from Arme, as she took out her staff and shouted "Lightning Bolt!" aimed right for the Knight's retreating back, who barely managed to avoid becoming a crispy Ronan once again.

I just shook my head and sighed. "C'mon, lets get going."

"_Hey hurry up Lass! Your as slow as one of those giant orcs with the hammer!"_

"_They're called Orc Warriors, La__, and if I wasn't so tired you know I could easily beat you."_

"_Oh c'mon, those training sessions can't be that bad. I could do them so easily that I wouldn't even be tired!"_

"_Ya right, I'd like to see you stay up almost all night training and not be tired."_

"_...you know the only reason why you were chosen was because of your speed and your attack strength."_

"_Oh really? Then maybe I should make myself slower and do something to make myself a cripple so I can't fight."_

"_Oh c'mon, I don't see what your problem is with being chosen, it's-"_

"_-a great honor, I know, you said this to me many times. But I don't really want to be _______ my whole life. I rather-"_

"_La___ what are you doing dragging Lass everywhere with you?! He's supposed to be resting!" A woman came and began to drag the young boy off, while still scolding the girl. What would we have done if he had gotten seriously injured? ______ needs him in top shape for the ceremony in a few weeks!"_

"You have done well, young assassin." I was snapped out of my thoughts as I heard the Assassin Leader's voice. Looking around I realized that we were outside of the ruins. "But I have some bad news: Bermesiah has been invaded once again, and sadly I no longer have the strength to drive them back. Save it, and become a true Striker." The Guild Leader said.

I nodded. "Right." I turned to the other two. "Ready for this?"

"Of course." Ronan said, and summoned his dragon, which caused Arme to almost visibly shrink.

"How about I just take the another route..." Arme said, backing up a bit.

"Oh no you don't." I said, grabbing onto the Mage's arm and helping her onto the Dragon after myself, and with that we took off. This caused Arme to hold on to me tightly, just like she did on the way here, except for one thing seemed different...my face felt warm, and uncomfortably so. It was strange though...a part of me actually like her holding onto me so tightly.

When we arrived back at Bermesiah, it wasn't a pleasant sight that we were met with. All of the monsters were running wild, attacking everything in sight, seemingly more violent then had been before. So we landed and began to fight. As we were fighting we met up with the rest of the chase, and continued pushing our way through the monsters, eventually coming upon what seemed to be the leader of the whole thing, Dark Anmon. Which, naturally, led to fighting him.

It took awhile, but we actually did manage to beat beast, but not without some cuts and bruises. The thing certainty didn't go down very easily. It was as the others were rejoicing about saving the continent that I noticed just beyond the corpse of Dark Anmon was her, the same girl that had attacked me back at the ruins. I only saw her for a moment, though, as she ran off. Curious as to what she had told me back at the ruins, I follow her, vaguely aware that someone behind me had called my name.

The girl stopped once we were some distance away from the others, and let me catch up before she spoke. "So, are you ready to fight me again, dear Lassy?" I frowned at the name. "I certainty hope that you'll give me a better fight then last time."

"Bring it." I said simply, ready this time to fight her.

"Alright then, I won't hold back." She said, and then proceeded to charge at me.

Needless to say I lasted longer then I did before, as when she went to kick me I was ready for it and managed to dodge. The fight went on for a few minutes, and I actually manage to give her a few scratches, but every time I scratched her, she gave me one in return.

It seemed to be at a stalemate, I guess, until she jumped back and threw one of her swords at me, which I blocked, causing her sword to become imbedded in the ground just a bit in front of me. "Sorry, but that won't work." I told her.

"Oh really? I beg to differ." She said smoothy, smirking.

"What are you-" I began to ask, but was cut off by a very sharp pain in my chest. Looking down, I saw that the sword that had been in the ground was now firmly, painfully, sticking out from me. My vision started to blur as I began to fall backwards. Where had it....come...from...?

"Lass!" I think someone was calling my name...but I couldn't be sure...I began to hear sounds but couldn't make anything out of them...

"...er...ec...ion..."

"...ur....

"...ly...er...o..."

"...ing...o...."

There was something leaning over me, I think....but it was all to bury, and black was rapidly clouding my vision...

I felt some sort of strange warmth all of a sudden along with some sort of noise.

"...ease...ease....on't ie...ss..." It was a sad sound, I think, one that I almost wanted to comfort.

The last thing I remember before the world went completely black was one small word echoing in my head:

_ Layla _


	5. The Memories

And another chapter is done. Sorry for the long wait, my hard drive decided to go bad on me :(

Anywho, **SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO KNOW!: **Eventually in this chapter the POV will change for a sort time. I think it's pretty easy to guess who it is, but in case you get confused I'll put which POV it was at the end of the chapter.

And off we go!

* * *

_Today was the day, the day of his tenth birthday, the one the boy had been dreading. But he hadn't gone just yet; no, he would stay on his bed in his room for as long as possible, trying to come up with a way to get out of the dreaded ceremony. So far, he had come up with nothing that would actually work. A few he had tried, but those had failed._

_A hand gripped his arm, and pulled the boy off the bed, despite his protests. He kept pulling and struggling, trying to get the arm off so that he could run away, but to no avail. Finally, he was taken to a large room, with what looked to be an extremely old women sitting in a chair. The boy was held just in front of the women, and was made sure that he stayed in one place, despite his struggling. What seemed to be a short spell was uttered:_

"_As the old fades away and turns to dust, a new one is prepared;_

_The host is ready for you, O Queen of Darkness!_

_Take your rightful place so that your reign may continue!"_

_With that said, a black/purple mist came out of the woman's mouth and headed towards the boy, who began to struggle even more._

"_No! No, I don't want to!" The boy yelled. "Lemme go!" He yelled desperately. But it was pointless, as no one seemed to be paying attention to him. With in a scant few moments, the mist entered the boy, who screamed, his consciousness fading, and the last thing he noticed was a familiar white haired girl peeking into the room..._

"Lass, Lass wake up! It's just a bad dream!"

"NO!" I yelled as I learched awake. I soon regretted this action as a sudden pain wracked itself through my chest, causing me to double over. "Gah..." I muttered.

A hand was placed on my back. "Are you alright, Lass?" A familiar male voice asked.

I looked to my side, panting slightly, and saw Ronan, who looked slightly worried. "Ya..." I looked away, still shaken from my dream. No, it hadn't been a dream-there was no way something that real could have been imagined. It had been a memory-a memory of when I had been first possessed by that evil witch Kaze'Aze, when I had been ten. Wait...well, at least I guess I had something to go on to try and figure out my age. Now all I had to do was figure out how many years had passed since then. I sighed but then winced, my chest still throbbing.

"Lass," Ronan's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked at him once more, "are you sure your alright? It looked like that dream was pretty bad because you kept yelling and appeared to be struggling against something. I was worried that you were going to re-open your wound."

I looked at the blankets, unsure if I wanted to tell him the truth of what the dream really was, even though he was the closest of the Chase to me. It was probably attributed to the fact that he had been the first one out of the others that I had met when I had first woken up within the Grand Chase Castle. At that time there had only been him, Lire, Arme, and Elesis, who had been taking turns watching me, just like I suspected they had been doing today. It probably also helped that Ronan had gone though something at least similar to the possession I had, what with the shadow orb and all, so he understood at least some of what I had gone though. I had to keep myself from sighing again. "So what was I saying?" I asked, trying to get away from the memory.

"Well, I don't think I caught all of it because I had just come back from making sure Arme got some sleep-" Ronan began, but I cut him off.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" I asked, confused.

"Well, ever since we brought you back here so that you could recover, she's been staying up day and night just watching you." The knight shook his head. "I had to practically drag her to her room and make sure she was asleep before I left least she come back here to make sure you were still doing alright."

"I almost died, didn't I?" I asked. He didn't say it, but I knew that's what he was thinking of because of the way he spoke.

Ronan didn't say anything for a moment, averting my gaze. Then, finally, he answered. "Yes, you did. It was a close call; If Ryan's resurrection ability had gotten you any later then it had, you wouldn't be here right now. To help with the effect, those of us that could performed our own healing abilities on you."

"A close call for sure then..." I muttered.

_A familiar white haired girl peeking into the room..._

"_Layla."_

"Lass?"

"Huh? Oh sorry..." I muttered.

"Who's Layla?" Ronan asked.

"It's a name that's been going though my head lately...I think we used to be close. I keep having flashes of this girl in my memory and I think that's her name..." Although, something had changed; usually I couldn't see the girl in my memory, it was just a strange sense of knowing she was there. But now, in that last memory, although terrible, I had actually seen the girl for once, and what I saw was puzzling. The girl had the same hair color as I did, and a similar face.

"How long has this been going on, exactly?" The Knight asked curiously.

"The flashbacks started about the time when reached the Ruins." I answered. "There were always a lot of blanks in them-still are, actually-which more often then not caused me to get frustrated. It didn't help that they would come to me at the most inconvenient of times."

"Ah, you mean like that time when you spaced off during the fight with the Cyclops?"

"Yes, exactly. Apparently me and this Layla girl had gone into the ruins when we were little because we had heard there was cyclops in it that we were going to tease. I got hurt and I think we were both about to be killed when another boy, I think just a little older then me and Layla had been, came and saved us." I then looked at Ronan curiously. "But there's one thing about that event that I'm the most curious about-the boy's hair was the same color as yours and his name, what little I remember of it, started with 'Ro'."

It was the Knight's turn to look curious now. "Hmm, I don't think it was me, because I spent my childhood training for the position of Royal Guard Master."

"Great, now you've just ruled out the only possibility I could think of." I muttered, laying back down.

"Ah, I see that you have survived. I expected no less from you." I looked over to where the voice had come from to see the Assassin Guild Leader slowly making his way towards the bed I was on. I began to sit up so that I could more properly greet him wincing a bit as I did so. But he waved his hand and said, "It is alright, you do not have to sit up." I just nodded, grateful, as my chest was really starting to throb, and went back to laying down. The Guild Leader sat down with a small groan in one of the two chairs that was by the bed I was in, the other chair being used by Ronan. "You have done well, young assassin. There is but one final test that I would have you complete once you are well." He paused to clear his throat before continuing. "I would like to see how well you perform against your peers. You will go against each of them individually, until you can go no more." He then smiled. "I look forward to seeing your fighting skills in person."

/////////////

After what seemed like a countless amount of time, the day finally arrived where I had my chance to take the final test given by the Guild Leader. It was a good thing too; if I spent any more time in that infirmary I swore I'd go nuts. The nurse irritated me, always had since the first day I met her. Her rules were a bit too strict for my tastes, as majority of the time the only thing she would let me do was lay there, staring at the ceiling. Although I guess it wasn't always that boring, as if there wasn't any missions to do, Arme would be sitting in a chair next to my bed, trying to keep me from a death induced by boredom. We would talk about random subjects, even if most of the time it seemed like she was doing most of the talking. She wasn't the only one that came to see me either; the rest of the chase made their own appearances to check up on me, but they never seemed to stay long, except for Ronan. When he came he would take a seat next to Arme and join in on the conversation (or turn it into one, considering most of the time I was content to just listen, that is).

But now was the time to face the others in combat, something I found myself weary of. In my conscious memory, I had not fought against the others much, even when offered to join in the sparring matches, preferring solitude. The few times that I had participated, had been the fault of Amy and Arme, each on a separate occasion. Arme was just so that she would get off my case, and Amy had practically dragged me onto the practice field, spotting something about wanting to have an all out Boys vs. Girls match, the reason being because of something Ryan said or some other silly reason.

I sighed and headed to practice field, ready for the test, where I found the others ready and waiting.

It had taken around half the day, but I finally managed to get done with the test, but not completely unscathed. Although I think I fared rather well, after all, it's not like I happened upon a losing streak. Afterwords the Assassin Guild Leader had apparently left right before the last match ended, and had left with Knight Master his Nodachi, and she was to give it to me once I was finished, as well as to learn that there was a new armor to wear, apparently being what Strikers were supposed to wear. Well, I guess that means I passed, at least.

/////////////

It was now the day that I had planned with Arme to enact my own sort of retaliation for what Ronan had done back in the ruins. The plan was to have Arme lure Elesis into the gardens and I would make sure that Ronan made it there as well. Then Arme and I would close and lock the doors on the knights for some 'bonding' time. It was obvious the two liked each other enough that even I had noticed.

But before I went off to do my half of the plan, I stopped by my room to drop off a few things. As I turned around to leave, I was met with a strange hooded figure standing in the doorway. "What do you want?" I asked harshly, hand on my Nodachi, ready to attack as soon as need arose.

"It is time that you return to your mother, my dear." The figure said in a female voice, extending a hand to me, but this motion only made me grasp the Nodachi's hilt tighter and I narrowed my eyes slightly. At this motion, the figure drew back her hand, and almost seemed to frown. "I see, so that's how it is. I am so sorry that they have had you for so long and for what they have done to your poor mind." She reached into cloak and I thought I heard a 'click' of some sort. Following this motion, a horrible, ringing sound began, and I could feel my grip on reality quickly loosening.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted, somewhat weakly. I tried to slash at her, but she just easily stepped out of it, causing me to trip and fall, as my vision rapidly becoming more and more blurry, while my legs could no longer support me. I lay of the floor, panting, trying to block out the ringing, but to no avail.

The last think I saw was the figure approaching me before darkness enveloped the world.

* * *

I was waiting outside the gardens, Elesis standing impatiently next to me, both of us waiting for Lass and Ronan to show up, but it had been ten minutes already and I was beginning to wonder.

Next to me Elesis made a frustrated groan. "Are you sure they're even coming?"

"Well, Lass said that he and Ronan would met us here for our 2 vs 2 match." I answered. A little sparring match with the two boys is what I had told the female knight in order to get her to come. It was simply the easiest way to convince her to come, she always was inclined to it.

"Are you sure you got the place right? I mean, they are taking ages to get here, and the Gardens is a pretty strange place to hold a sparring match." Elesis commented. "The more logical place would be where we usually hold the sparring matches, out in the courtyard."

"Hmmm, they are taking a bit long, aren't they?" I said thoughtfully. Really, it shouldn't take Lass _this_ long to convince Ronan to come. "Let's go look for them."

It took a few minutes, but we finally found Ronan, but Lass was no where in sight, something that had me a bit worried and caused a knot of anxiety to form in the pit of my stomach. "Ronan, where's Lass?" I asked tentatively.

"I'm not sure, as I haven't seem him all day. When I went up to his room to check on him, he wasn't there. I figured he was practicing or something." Said Knight replied, and his answer made the knot in my stomach grow more.

"He wasn't there? Are you sure?" I asked, trying not panic, because come to think of it, I hadn't seen the thief since last night when we had finalized our plans for retaliation...and currently it was shortly after the time that we had decided to enact the plan. He had seem so amused by it...he wouldn't just not go through with unless something happened, right?

"I'm pretty sure he wasn't there, I didn't even see his Nodachi anywhere, so that's why I figured he was practicing." Ronan then got a worried look. "Why? Is there something wrong with him not being in his room?"

I didn't answer, just raced off to Lass' room, vaguely noting the footsteps following behind me. As soon as I arrived, I flung the door open, half hoping that my suspicions were wrong and that I would indeed find Lass in his room. However, I had not such luck, there was no sign of him...

"What's the deal Arme? I don't think I've ever seen you run that fast." Someone commented behind me. I think it was Elesis, but I didn't pay too much attention, as I was too busy looking around the room for any sort of clue as too what could have happened to Lass. I was about to give up and go with Ronan's theory of him practicing, when something glinting off the sun coming in from the window caught my eye. I went over the bed where the glint had come from and keeled down. I then grabbed onto the shiny thing and pulled it out from under, reveling, to my shock and horror, Lass' Nodachi. I looked under the bed to find the sheath not too far away from where the blade itself had been, and pulled that out as well.

"This...this isn't good. Lass would never be so careless about his weapons!" I exclaimed, now officially worried.

Ronan got a thoughtful look. "You've got a point there, Arme. I don't think I've ever seen him with out his weapons before."

"Not good, this is definitely not good." I muttered.

* * *

I woke up with a groan and rolled over in my bed. I sat up slowly, rubbing the top on my head. "Ugh, it feels like an Anmon Guard hit me on the head..." I muttered.

"I see you've finally come to. Mistress's sirens can sure you a real number on you, huh?" A strange voice said from my right.

I stood up quickly, reaching for the hilt of my Nodachi, but ended up grasping nothing but air. It was then that I finally took note of my surroundings. I was in a small room, standing on the one bed that was pushed against the wall farthest from the bared entrance. A blue haired boy looking closer to Ronan's age was leaning against the wall next to said entrance, watching me. "What do you want?" I demanded, not pleased at all to be locked in a room and completely weaponless. Even the daggers I usually had hidden in my shoes were gone. Matter of fact, my whole outfit was different from I had been conscious; I was now wearing and old short sleeved white shirt, and an old pair of black shorts. My shoes however, were gone entirely.

The boy just shook his head. "I'm not your enemy, Lass. I came to see how you were doing."

"If your not my enemy, then why did you lock my up here?"

The boy sighed heavily. "You really have forgotten everything, haven't you?" He muttered.

"What are you talking about? Explain yourself!" I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting a little frustrated.

"Lass, it's me, Romaji. We're friends, remember?" Romaji said.

Hmmm, so perhaps he was the one that had rescued me and Layla from the Cyclops when we had been little? "Did I know you when I was little?" I asked.

Romaji nodded. "Yes you did. We were best friends, you and I."

"How do I know your not just saying that? You haven't given me any good reason to trust you." I wasn't about to let down my guard in such an unfamiliar place, even if Romaji was the boy from the memory. Romaji just sighed and looked out through the bars. He shook his head slightly, and shortly after, at least six men entered the room. "What's this?" I asked, but received no reply as the men charged at me. Oh gee thanks, an assault.

I easily jumped over the group heading towards me, and while they were sorting themselves out after colliding with each other, I began to look for an escape. Because fighting them off without a weapon wasn't in question. I wasn't the hand-to-hand fighter type, that's what Jin was for. Although I was starting to think I should've taken a few lessons like Amy seemed to....

I finally noticed a hole in the ceiling just big enough for me to fit through that was above the bed. Being able to jump high certainly had it's perks...I took a running start and just before reaching the bed I jumped. But once I was almost withing reaching distance, something grabbed my foot and pulled me back to the bed, hard. Winded, I wasn't able to react in time to stop the men from pinning me down, one on each of my legs, as well as arms. A fifth man held my held my head to the side, exposing my neck. The last one of the group approached, holding a syringe that contained some vary ominous looking purple and black liquid.

As he came closer I began to struggle, trying in vain to get free. As soon as the man was close enough, he stuck the needle of the syringe into my neck, and pushed the button down, injecting the liquid into me. It was cold and of a think consistency; not pleasant at all. After all was in me, the man with drew back to door, but didn't leave. The others holding me down didn't let go either, not for a few minutes, anyways.

Shortly after they let go, my head began to feel like it was splitting, causing me to gasp. I sat up sharply clutching my head in both hands and eyes closed tight as the pain seemed to grow with each passing second. It didn't help that a whirl of pictures and sound began to barrage my mind.

"_Ya I think that they're fallen warriors from some lost civilization."_

"_Wanna go check it out?" _

"_You know me all to well, Lass."_

"_Well what do you expect from your twin?"_

As incomplete memory's began to make themselves whole, the pain intensified even more to a point where I could no longer help it-I screamed.

"_Tired already, Lass? Some big brother you are."_

"_Hey give me a break! I was training all last night!" _

"_Sorry bro, I forgot about that." _

_A sigh. "It's alright, Layla."_

"_So when do you think we'll be old enough?"_

"_I dunno, but I think I heard mom and dad say somewhere between fifteen and eighteen."_

"_Awwwww but that's so far away! I don't want to wait that long Lassy!"_

"_I'm pretty sure Kaze'Aze isn't ready for it just yet. She's still building her army. And don't call me Lassy!"_

"_Good work, Romaji."_

"_Oh c'mon it's a great privilege! You should consider yourself special to have been chosen for Kaze'Aze's host! The Best I can do is be in the army!"_

"_Oh c'mon, I don't see what your problem is with being chosen, it's-"_

"_-a great honor, I know, you said this to me many times. But I don't really want to be possessed my whole life. I rather-"_

"_Layla what are you doing dragging Lass everywhere with you?! He's supposed to be resting!" A woman came and began to drag the young boy off, while still scolding the girl. What would we have done if he had gotten seriously injured? Lady Kaze'Aze needs him in top shape for the ceremony in a few weeks!"_

More images and sounds, blurring all together swirled in my head in what I supposed were supposed to be memories. But I was in too much pain to make sense of them now. I curled up into a tight ball on the bed, still clutching my head in a vain attempt to make the pain go away.

As a blurred blue figure approached, I manage to choke out, "Please...please make it stop..." Even as I said this I felt something wet on my face couldn't completely comprehend as to what it was. The figure a hand over my eyes and I knew no more.

* * *

Yay, finally got to the part I've been waiting for! :) Ah, and poor wakes up in a strange place and then has his memories forcibly returned. Ouch. Oh yes, and the POV that it changed to from Lass was to **Arme**.

Anywho, see ya next time!

-Xire


	6. The Return

**Ch.6**

I don't know how much later it was when my consciousness returned to me. I rolled over in the bed, trying to get comfortable. My head still throbbed, but no where near as bad as it had been earlier.

"Are you awake?" Came Romaji's voice from behind me.

"No, I'm not." I answered, only to receive laughter in return. I certainty wanted to still be asleep, anyway. "What do you want, Romaji." It was more of a tired statement then a question, and I hadn't even bothered to open my eyes.

"To check on you, what else?" He replied, and I could tell there was a shrug in there somewhere.

"And so you have. Now why don't you leave me to sleep in peace." I muttered.

The bed then went down a little, like Romaji had just sat down on it. "I can tell your not happy about this Lass." He said, sighing.

"That's a bit of an understatement." I said under my breath, finally opening my eyes and staring at the wall. It was obvious I wasn't about to get any more sleep any time soon. "How would you like to have all your memories suddenly shoved upon you in one painful burst?" I asked, looking at him.

Romaji looked away, a little sheepish. "I admit that it probably wasn't the best, but can you blame me for wanting my best friend back?"

I sighed. "I guess not. But that still doesn't mean that I have to like the way you did it. By the way, how did mother know where I was, anyway?" I asked. It had to have been her, because now that I thought about it, the voice of the female that had taken me from the Grand Chase Castle had to have been her, there was no doubt about it.

Romaji got a small, almost proud look on his face. "How else? The head tracker told her."

I sat up as I said, "I thought you never wanted to go that high up in rank."

My childhood friend shrugged. "Well, it was the best way I could think of that would allow me to be close to you."

I sighed. "But it wasn't even really me. I wasn't even conscious after that witch took over my body."

It was Romaji's turn to give a sigh now. "I figured that much, but Layla and I, we both did our best to be close to you, even if it was a vain attempt, I guess."

Layla...we had been close when we were little, as I suppose all twins are. Adding Romaji into our group, we were quite the trio. "Romaji...what exactly happened to my sister? Before mother came and got me, Layla tried to kill me twice, almost succeeding the second time. I wouldn't have though she had it in her."

Romaji shook his head and sighed again. "Just as I made my way up the ranks in my own field, so did she. She made it into the army, just like she always said she would, and managed to get pretty high up there. It got to the point where no one could defeat her. So of course, Kaze'Aze, or 'the witch' as you call her, put Layla at the head of the army. She was doing fine, and acting mostly like herself, until that Grand Chase group came and took you away."

"They freed me from that witch's control; something I'm extremely grateful for." I stated.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they freed you as well. The part that I, and everyone else seemed to dislike, was that they kidnapped you." Romaji put in.

I shook my head. "They didn't kidnap me, Romaji. I probably would've died if they had just left me there. So they took me and bandaged me, and actually accepted me into their ranks, despite the crimes I had committed. I really didn't mind being there."

Romaji sighed and shook his head. "Of course you would."

We stayed talking like that for who knows how much longer, and I was filled in on all that I had missed since I had been gone. Romaji was now gone, and I lay on my back on my bed. I had discovered shortly after my friend had left that they had patched up the hole that had been there earlier, to of course prevent me from escaping. I sighed and placed a hand over my eyes, mulling over all the information Romaji had give me.

When I asked him how long exactly I had been possessed, he had replied with 'about eight years'. Eight years...so then, I guess that would make eighteen then, wouldn't it? Considering that my possession began when I was ten...

And then there was Layla. Apparently when the Grand Chase took me away after freeing me and after I didn't come back, Layla figured that I had betrayed everyone, especially Kaze'Aze. So she went on a hunt for me, ready to either bring me back so that I could go back into service (aka be possessed again some way that I didn't like to think about) or kill me for being a traitor. But she was never much of a tracker, so it didn't go so well, until she decided to follow Romaji, who was an actual tracker, to where I was. As it turned out, Romaji actually knew where I was since shortly after I was taken in by the chase, but he didn't reveal it to the others as according to him he wanted me 'to have a happier life at my new home'.

But life here had never been that bad...I didn't mind spending time with Layla as she was my twin and not bad company and with Romaji as he was my closest friend here. We had fun together, the three of us...

"What are they doing here?!"

"Get rid of them!

"They've come to take him away from us again, haven't they?!"

I was woken up sometime later by frustrated shouts, but the cause of which, I was unsure of. I hadn't a clue as to what was going on, let alone having realized that I had fallen asleep in the first place. Must've been more tired then I thought.

I sat up, wondering what in the world was going on. Through the bars on the door I could see a bunch of people running around seemingly in some sort of panic. I guess that would figure, for as far as I can remember, we had never come under attack before, as this place was well hidden in the shadows of a place called Silver Cross Town. Anyone that wasn't looking for it, and even sometimes then, wouldn't see it. So unthinkable it had been that someone would attack this place that a plan of counter attack had never been formed. Heh, even a group of thieves can have their stupid moments too, you know.

As I couldn't really do anything in my current situation, I just crossed legged on the bed, chin resting on a hand and a somewhat bored look on my face. As this what this place was right now-boring. I hadn't realized that I had dazed off until I heard a very familiar voice shout: "Lunetic Force!" which shortly after the bars in the entrance of my room turned to ice. Well, there was no mistaking that skill-Ronan couldn't be too far away.

"Air Blast!" And that would be Arme. Almost right after I heard her say that, a wide greenish wind slammed into the bars, shattering them in their frozen state. The only problem was that the wind kept coming, and I had to scramble out of the way if I didn't want to get hit by it.

Standing up from the floor which I had dived to for safety, I yelled, "Watch where your aiming that thing! Are you trying to kill me or something?!"

"Well _sorry,_ but that's what you get for going and disappearing like you did!" Arme said as she appeared in the now open doorway, hands on her hips and frowning. I'll admit though...it was good to see her, even if she was unhappy with me.

"Give him a break, Arme. I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose." Ronan said, coming up to stand by the mage. He then looked over at me. "So, you ready to get out of their or should I leave you and Arme for a bit of 'alone' time?"

At this, Arme's face wet a bit red and she yelled, "Ronan!" while attempting to hit him in the head with her War Staff. Attempt being the key word, as said knight dodged the blow. I shook my head and sighed. I could tell he wasn't going to give up on this that easily.

"I'd actually rather get out of this place as soon as possible. Quite boring here really. Well, that is before you guys came and stirred up the place." I said, heading towards them.

"Then your gonna need this." Ronan said, tossing something that was long and thin to me. I caught it out of reflex, and when I looked down I realized that it was my Nodachi. I smiled slightly. It was good to have a form of offense again.

We began to head out of the room, and soon I could hear the voices of the other Grand Chase members fighting. I looked at the two that had rescued me from my room. "Did all of you seriously come to get me?" I asked a bit skeptically.

"What, do you think that we're the only one's that care about you?" Arme replied, giving me a look and gesturing to herself and Ronan. "Of course we all came!"

"And you know Elesis, she can never pass up a fight." Ronan added.

"Of course you would know that, now wouldn't you?" I said, looking at the knight with a small smile on my face.

"W-well...I...uh...um...we're just...we're just friends!" Ronan stuttered out, his face going a little red.

I laughed. "Uh huh, uh huh, sure...let's go with that." I teased.

"Ugh, this isn't your pay back for back in the ruins, is it?"

"Hardly."

_The time is near...soon, very soon..._

I turned back to look behind me as I heard the a voice. It sounded refined and proper, but had a definite underlying tone of evil to it, as well as a familiarity that I couldn't quite place. But the strange thing was, was that there was no one behind me to have said it.

"Ah good, I see you've managed to find him." Huh? Oh right. That was Lire's voice. I looked back in front of me to find the rest of the chase there. We were now in the middle of a hallway, although I was a little behind the others, having stopped before them. "The guards have all been knocked out, so we should be able to get out of here easily enough."

_Now, the time is right. I shall enjoy this._

As the strange voice spoke again, I began to fell my arm move of it's own volition. It was reaching for the hilt of my Nodachi, going to pull it out of it's sheath. I tried to stop it, fearing what might happen, my to no avail.

_Now to dispose of everything you hold dear, boy. That should teach you a lesson for defying me._

Kaze'Aze! Her voice was coming from inside me, speaking to my mind.

_Yes boy, it's about time you realized that it was me. I have been waiting in the shadows of you being for just the right time to make my come back. You have gotten quite a bit stronger since the last time, and I like it. I shall use this strength to my advantage. Say goodbye to your friends, boy._

Even as she said this, my hand was drawing my Nodachi, preparing to strike.

_Now, who shall I go after first? That ridiculous male knight or the girl mage? Well, it seems the girl means more to you then the boy, so we'll go after him first. Save the best for last, as they say._

With this, my arm reached up and pointed the Nodachi right at Ronan. Said knight noticed and a confused look appeared on his face. "Lass?" He asked.

I tried to say something, _anything_, that would warn him and the others of what was about to happen, but all I managed to get out were a few raged breaths.

"Razer Blade!*" I was helpless to watch as the unsuspecting knight was hit with the attack, unprepared. At the end of the attack, he was left up against a wall, badly cut up and barely breathing. I could feel my head nod and a slight smirk forming.

"Lass, what's the meaning of this?!" One of the Chaser's exclaimed, mostly likely Elesis.

The comment was ignored, however, as my body turned to face Arme. "Your next, little girl." Kaze'Aze sneered through my body, getting ready to attack again. At least it was a good thing that my magic hadn't recovered enough to perform Blade Spirit...

Arme took a small step back, and I could tell she was a little frightened. Run, Arme! Run away from this place and take the others with you! There came a laugh in my mind from the witch.

_Yell as much as you want, boy. They won't hear you no matter how loud you scream._

Kaze'Aze then charged right for Arme, ignoring the others, although some I suspected had probably gone to tend to Ronan.

As Kaze'Aze went to strike Arme, she just teleported through the attack to stop behind my body. Arme then shot a firebolt at my back, but Kaze'Aze just used switch to appear behind the mage. With this advantage, the witch promptly slashed at her, creating a gash on the mage's side. Arme turned around to counter attack, but it ended up that all she managed to do was block with her War Staff. Now I'm pretty sure that thing wasn't made for blocking...

My suspicion was confirmed when the staff cracked a little, and I felt Kaze'Aze's smirk grow wider. "Soon, you die!" She said. Which was true, as soon as that staff broke, the witch would have a clear shot at Arme's heart...

No no no! Ronan was one thing, but Arme, Arme was...she was...special...I won't let that witch kill her! I won't!

I began to try harder then ever to take back control of my body, the effort evident in the way my arm had begun shaking as I tried to to pull it away from Arme.

_What do you thing you are doing you brat?!_

Taking back my body, that's what. I thought as I managed to drop the Nodachi's sheath and bring up that hand to try and help pull up the one that was pushing against the War Staff. Which was quite a struggle, let me tell you. As such as could feel my energy depleting, but I was not about to give into the witch and let her have her way any longer.

At this, Kaze'Aze put more pressure into the hand that she was still controlling, and the crack crack in the staff grew. At this point, I doubt the staff would hold out much longer, and a new wave of panic gripped me.

"STOP IT!" I yelled, closing my eyes tightly. At this, I finally felt the control of my body return to me, at least for now. As I released the pressure that was on Arme's staff from my Nodachi, I heard a voice next to me.

"Don't move unless you want to lose your head." At this, my surroundings finally came back to me, and a I realized two things: A scythe was at my neck and sword was pressing into my back. There was no way to escape without severely injuring myself.

////////////

I slowly stirred awake to the sound female voices coming from somewhere. But wait-when I had I even lost consciousness? The last thing I remembered was Ryan's scythe at my neck and Elesis's sword to my back. Try as I might I couldn't remember, so that must've been it. It was probably from exhaustion, as that battle to regain control of my body had taken quite a bit of energy.

"Are you sure that it's okay to just leave him in his own room? Don't you think it would be safer to leave him in a cell or something?" I was snapped out of my thoughts by the voices picking up again.

"Oh come on, I don't think it was really him that was doing the attacking. Couldn't you tell? It looked like he was struggling against himself like he had been possessed again." A second female voice said.

"And we've taken away all his weapons, so it's not like he'd be able to do much damage without them. You know he's never seemed like much of the hand-to-hand type." A third female added. All the voices sounded familiar some how, but my brain didn't seem to want to figure out who.

"Humph. I still don't trust him." The first female said.

"You're just mad because of what he did to Ronan." The second spoke. Wait, Ronan? If the voices were talking about him then that must mean that...the voices were members of the Grand Chase team. But none of the voices were high enough to be Amy's...so that meant that it had to be Elesis, Lire and...and Arme... "I still think he's the same Lass that we've always known."

"Your just baiest Arme." I think that voice was Elesis and the one that had spoken before was Arme...heh, I couldn't believe she was still defending me despite what I had done recently. I didn't deserve it, really. Can't they just admit that I'm not worth it? Next time could be even worse then last time...I could actually really kill someone...I gripped the bed sheets tightly at the thought, causing a gasp from the three girls that I guess had been watching me.

"I think he's awake, perhaps we should leave." Lire said.

There was a pause then, "You two go, I'm gonna stay for a bit." That was Arme.

"You sure?" Lire again. There came no reply, but I supposed the Arme had nodded, as I heard two sets of footsteps leaving.

There was silence, and I wondered if Arme had decided to leave anyways, but then there came a quiet, "Lass?" I tensed at the mage's calling of my name. When she said nothing else, I hoped that she figured me to be asleep. But then I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay, Lass?" Arme asked softly.

My back was to her, so I debated wither or not to feign sleep. But I eventually decided not to and slowly sat up, but I didn't look at her. "I'm surprised your not mad at me." I muttered, looking down at the blankets of my bed.

Arme sat down next to me. "Of course I'm not mad at you. I've said it many times in the past and I'll say it again as many times as necessary; It wasn't your fault. You were possessed, not in control of your own body's actions."

"Elesis doesn't seem to think so." I replied.

Arme sighed. "You weren't supposed to hear the conversation, you know. We thought you were still unconscious." I looked at her out of the corner of my eye in time to see her shake her head. "But anyways, Elesis is just venting her frustrations and her worry like that. If it had been anyone besides Ronan, she wouldn't be acting near as bad as she is."

"Right..." I shook my head. "But that doesn't change the fact I practically killed Ronan and hurt you. How am I supposed to forgive myself for that?" I asked, looking over at her skeptically.

The mage just shook her head. "Your a bit hopeless, aren't you? Oh, and it's pretty sure that he's not going to die. Ronan, I mean. He's still unconscious, but he's not at high risk of not making it, just thought you'd like to know."

I just nodded. I guess that was a good thing to know, as I was thinking the worst that I actually had managed to kill the knight. "Elesis is right to not trust me, and the rest of you should follow suit. I could probably turn against you all at any time." Now that I knew Kaze'Aze was still there inside me, I had no idea for just how long I had control of my body. That though was enough in itself to make me depressed, and annoyed at the same time. It was sad that I would have to turn against my friends and leave them, while incredibly frustrating and vexing that I had no idea how to get the witch out of my body.

"I trust you, Lass. I really do. Nothing could make me change my mind on that. Because I know without a doubt that you are a good person." Arme said quietly. "I know that it is never really you that does terrible things, it's that witch that does it."

"But it's still-" I began to protest, but the mage cut me off.

"No buts, you hear? It's not really you personally that does it. Got it?" She said more then asked, placing a hand over my mouth. Her touch was soft and warm, and there was that odd almost sort of comforting effect again. It made me want to lean into the touch and let all of my worries go. I began to slowly reach up a trembling hand to touch hers, but stopped myself, instead clenching the hand into a fist and letting it rest once more on the bed. I simply nodded to her statement. "Good." With that she removed her hand and almost felt myself longing for her touch again.

"I'll...I'll keep that in mind, Arme." I said quietly, looking over at her.

"You better, or I just might have to sick my Gorgos on you." The mage said, nodding. She paused and frowned. "Are you going to be okay? You don't look so well."

I laughed a bit nervously at that. "Of course I'm fine, Arme. Just a bit tired is all, really." I tried to smile to emphasis the point, but I don't think I did very well.

Arme didn't look to overly convinced, but at least she let it drop. "Well...if you say so." she said hesitantly. She paused before giving me a gentle hug. "I'm here for you, you know. Don't ever hesitate to come talk to me, okay?" She said softly.

"Of course." I answered. With that, she got up and left, after giving me one last light smile. "Thanks..." I whispered after the door to my room was shut.

I sighed and laid back heavily upon my bed, letting the feeble smile drop to be replaced by a deep set frown. What was I going to do now? There was no way that I could stay here, not with the danger of Kaze'Aze taking control again. I couldn't let that happen, at least not here, not where there were so many close to me that I could kill so near. That was it then-I would leave the Chase in order to protect them from myself, no matter how much I would have rather that it hadn't come to this.

I leaned over from the bed so that I could reach one of the floor boards. It was loose, and I easily pried it open. There underneath, were a few daggers and some kunai. I had kept them there in case of emergency or I couldn't get to my other weapons. I figured that I might just in case need something to defend myself with, and these were as good as any, especially since I didn't know where my other weapons even were.

I reached down and picked the daggers up, and was going to hide them in my clothes until they were needed, when I felt Kaze'Aze's control begin to grow. Surprised by this, my eyes widened and I hurriedly threw down the daggers, not wanting the witch to have anything already at her immediate use. But as soon as the weapons left my hand, her control began to recede. So is that how it was going to be, eh? Well, I guess I can make due without any sort of weapon, it can't be too hard can it? Jin does it all the time, after all.

I laughed bitterly. Who was I kidding? Jin had been training to fight like that for who knows how long, so of course he'd make it look easy. So let's face it-I was just not that kinda fighter. I didn't know the first thing about hand-to-hand combat, besides the basic punch to the face, let alone that 'Chi' or whatever it was that Jin said he uses...

I sighed heavily. I would have rely on my dodging skills then, won't I? Because I certainty don't think I'd fair to well in a fight the way I am now. I shook my head began to formulate how I would made my exit from the Chase.

////////////

It was now some time past midnight, a time when I was sure all the inhabitants of the castle would be fast asleep. I grabbed a bag that had been sitting waiting on my bed, before silently heading out of my room and heading towards the kitchen to pack some food for the trip, despite not knowing how long the trip would be. After the kitchen, I headed for the large, double doors that served as the entrance to the castle, only to find a surprise outside of them: Romaji, leaning against the wall next to the doors.

"And what do you think you're doing here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my childhood friend.

He just gave a slight smirk. "Well, I was the one to tell the mistress where you had been living, so of course I knew where to find you."

"I figured that much, but _why _ are you here? Come to drag me back 'home', are we?" I asked.

Romaji shook his head. "Actually, no one knows that I've come here. I wanted to talk to you." He didn't wait for me to reply as he spoke again. "I was waiting out here for the perfect moment when everyone else would be asleep to come speak to you."

"Oh, and you just _knew _that I would still be up? What would you have done if I had been asleep?"

He shrugged. "Well, you were always such a night owl when we were kids, so I figured that you'd still be one, because you really haven't changed much since then. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I was curious as to what you are planning now that Kaze's back. Although I was a bit surprised when you walked out those doors acting like you were running away."

I looked away from him. "I'm not running away." I muttered. "I'm leaving to protect them...I couldn't stand it if any of them got killed because of me."

"Alright then, where to? I'm obviously not going to let you go on this grand adventure yours alone and let you have all the fun." Romaji said, grinning.

I shook my head. "Now who's the one that hasn't changed..." I muttered. "But I guess if you really want to come along I won't stop you." I said, staring to walk forward again.

"Perfect!" He said, slinging an arm around my neck. "Besides, who's gonna fend off all the bad guys with your poor hand-to-hand skills?" He said, laughing.

I rolled my eyes. "Gee thanks, I feel so safe now." I said sarcastically, shoving him off me, only to receive laughter in return. Well, at least one of us was enjoying themselves.

After we were a good distance away, I turned and took one last look at the Grand Chase castle and smiled ruefully. It had always been a relief to see it in the past when coming down the hill we were on from long missions. It was home; someplace one knew they could always return to and be welcomed. But now, as it stood there, moon shinning brightly behind it, it was the place I could never return to, for the inhabitants' own good. I would always keep it in my memory as home, though, and cherish the memories that I had made there. Perhaps one day, if I was lucky, I would be able to return.

And with that, Romaji and I left, but to where was uncertain, as long as it was away from here.

* * *

Yes, Lass is leaving the GC, **But this is not the last chapter!!!!!** Even though with and ending to the chapter like that it could have easily been the end to this story, imo. But it's not, so stay tuned for more chapters after this one!

And just a few notes about this chapter:

**1st:** The name of Strikers 2 bar. I looked at the site and I know it says 'Phantom Blade' for the name, but try as I might I can't hear anything but 'Razor Blade', so therefore that is what it is going by here.

**2nd:** Being that if you really want the last part of this chapter (starting from the part where Lass is just leaving his room to leave the castle) to really make more of a...impact, then listen to this song here: h t t p: // w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = 2 5 i 5 6 A W t F q k (only w/o all the spaces). Trust me, that part got to me a bit more then it would've if I hadn't been had this song in the background.

-Xire


	7. The Sickness

I shall give you a small warning of this chapter: It goes through more then one person's POV, but they should be easy enough to figure out who's talking when :P

**Ch7**

"Gone, what do you mean he's gone?! How could he just up and disappear like that!" I almost yelled, trying to contain the frustration and hurt of Lass leaving.

"I'm afraid so, Arme. We can't find any trace of him within the castle." Lire was telling me. "We've all searched high and low, and in all of his known hiding places. Lass is just not here."

I frowned, not really wanting to believe that he had just run off like that. "Maybe you just haven't looked hard enough! Why would he just leave with out telling anyone?!" I said before running off.

I hadn't even been running with any sort of destination in mind, but ended up finding myself at the door to Lass' room. I opened it slowly to find it completely empty. I frowned and moved over to the bed, and to my surprise I found a small piece of paper with a few hastily written words in Lass' hand writing.

_I'm sorry, Arme._

And that was all it said. So then he really had left...and I thought I told him to come talk to me! I curled my hand into a fist, crushing the paper in my hand. That jerk...how dare he leave without saying anything and just leaving some dumb note! He better not think that I'm going to let him run off just like that and not do anything. I will drag him back here even if it's with him kicking and screaming!

////////

I'm not sure how long it had been since I left the Grand Chase, but if I had to guess, I'd say around two months. Things were going great...well, as great as they can be in present circumstances.

Romaji and I had wandered a bit around Bermesiah before making our way to Ellia. On said continent, we found the village that we currently were residing in. It was small, and residing behind a large hill, which made it easily missed by passerby. Which was something that I had hoped for in whatever place that we had finally decided to live in, in case any of the member of the chase came looking for me. To enhance my chances of not being found in case the chase ever did make their way here, I had dyed my hair black, the complete opposite of my normal color so as to throw them off. Sure my face was still the same, but if they didn't look closely, no one would ever suspect that the Black haired boy was Lass.

We had even managed to find work a few days after our arrival: a small shop in the center of the village (which turned out to be the only shop the village was, which tells you just how small a village it really was). The previous owner had apparently died shortly after Romaji and I had arrived, and the people had been worrying that they would have to move due to the lack of a working shop. So, we had decided to take on the shop ourselves in order to stay and keep the village alive.

A plus to taking over the shop was that there was what looked like to have been some sort of bedroom in years past that was above said shop. So, after cleaning the room up a bit and getting some new beds, it became our sleeping quarters. Everything was going rather well; and started to seem as if life here could be normal, and I at least could try and forget my past to ease the longing for the ones that had become like family to me. It was all fine, until one day...

"Lass, Lass are you okay?!" Romaji asked me one morning from behind me in a worried tone as I was trying to recover from a violent coughing attack that had woken me up.

I couldn't answer him immediately as I was too out of breath. When I had recovered enough I replied, "I'll be fine." My voice was weak and a little raspy.

"You don't sound fine from where I'm standing."

"Heh, you just worry too much." I said as I slowly forced myself to sit up from my bed. I was incredibly tired and sore, even though I had done nothing to warrant such things the previous day.

"I hope you haven't caught anything." Romaji muttered, and when I turned to look at him, he was sitting on his own bed, chin in hand, seemingly looking no where and a worried/thoughtful look on his face.

I shook my head but soon regretted the motion as it made my head spin. "Like I said, you worry to much. We're not kids anymore; you don't have take care of me, I know how to take care of myself." I reminded him. For when we kids, Romaji had been assigned to adress any and all wounds and or sickness I had. He was my closest friend, and in many ways, like the older brother I never had, as he was older then me by about a year. I stood up slowly. "C'mon, it's time to get back to work, I'm sure this cough'll pass soon enough." Romaji still look worried, but at least complied. With that, we both started getting ready for the day.

Instead of getting better, my cough persisted, constantly waking me up in the mornings and a few days later was accompanied by a pounding headache. But that part I didn't tell my friend: I didn't want him to worry any more then I could tell he already was. As the days went by, I slowly started feeling worse and worse from the first day the attacks had began. It became a real challenge to force myself up in the mornings, and half the time my sense of balance was messed up, causing me to lose the ability to walk straight. Of course Romaji was constantly pestering me to stay in bed and get more rest in hopes of me recovering, but laying in bed all day was boring and I would quickly become restless. As Romaji was soon to learn and the chase had quickly learned themselves, I was a terrible patient, always trying to leave bed before I was supposed to.

/////////

It had been at least a month since Ronan and I had set out looking for Lass, and so far we had come up empty, much to my dismay and frustration. We had set out by ourselves, and were currently somewhere in Ellia. We were on our own because the Knight Master hadn't actually approved of a search for Lass like we were currently on. Knight Master had of course been told of what happened with said thief, and when he had disappeared, she had instructed that it was best to let him go and for none of us to go looking. But of course I couldn't just let the stupid thief go off like he did, so once he was recovered enough, I enlisted Ronan to help in my search, but that hadn't been vary hard as the knight was worried about the thief as well.

"Arg, where could that stupid Lass be! I swear we've searched everywhere for him and nothing!" I ranted one morning as we were getting ready to continue our search from a night's rest. "He couldn't have just disappeared into thin air!"

"Be patient Arme, I'm sure we'll find him soon enough." Ronan replied calmly. "He is a master of hiding, so it's only natural he wouldn't be an easy find."

"I swear when we find him I'll smack him so hard he'll wish he never left!" I huffed. "C'mon, let's keep going." I muttered, turning leave. But in doing so, I could've sworn I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Turning to where the thing was, I looked at it as closely as I could and eventually decided that it had to be a village. But I could've sworn it hadn't been there yesterday... "Hey Ronan, isn't that what looks like a village?" I asked, pointing to where I could see said place hiding.

The knight looked where I was pointing and stared at it for a few moments before answering. "Must be...but I don't know why we didn't notice it earlier." He said.

"Well, let's go there then!" I said enthusiastically, starting to head towards the village. "If it's not so easily noticeable, then that makes perfect sense that Lass would be in it!"

It took us what seemed like forever to get to the village, but according to Ronan that was just because I was in such a rush to get there. But when we did enter the village, it turned out to be very small, smaller then I had ever seen before. Shortly after arriving, we split up to cover more ground faster, and would met up in the village square at noon, as had become our habit when searching the villages.

/////////

The sickness had become worse now, especially the coughing. Just this morning I had coughed up some sort of strange, sticky black substance. Fortunately though, Romaji had been out or the room when it happened so he didn't know. I didn't tell him either; I didn't want him to know and become more worried, let alone try and force me to stay in bed.

So now, I was manning the front of the shop, and Romaji was in the back, checking stock of what we had. The store itself was more like a stall, it's front exposed and everything, with only a roof covering and no real walls. The back of the shop actually seemed more like a building then the store did. But the villagers called it the store, so that's what we called it. As is was, though, I was beginning to rethink not staying in bed as I had to hold on to the front counter of the store lest my legs give out on me, and I was lightheaded as could be.

Sometime after morning had began, I noticed someone approaching the shop out of the corner of my eye and turned to face them. "May I help...you?" I asked, forcing myself to finish my sentence and not stop short as I had received a bit of a surprise: the person who had come was not just an ordinary villager, no, it was _Ronan. _Well, I certainty hadn't been expecting him.

"Yes, I was wondering if you had seen a young man a little younger then myself with short, white hair?" The knight asked in response to my question, as I began to nervously start to try and pull my short sleeve over where my striker mark was. Even though the mark was usually hidden by a bandage to keep the villagers from becoming curious about it, I was still nervous about it being seen, as I was sure it would be a dead give away.

"I'm sorry to say that I haven't." I replied, trying to stay calm instead of panic that someone from the chase was here and not make eye contact, as that might be too much of a clue. I spoke carefully trying to sound different then I usually did as that would be a give away as well. But that wasn't too hard, as my fatigue and sore throat practically did it for me. "But if I do see someone that fits that description, I'll be sure to tell him that you are looking for him. Now what was your name?" It was strange asking that question as I already knew his name. But I did have to keep up the act, at least.

"Ronan, Ronan Erudon." The knight introduced. "Tell him that Arme's looking for him as well." Ah, Arme. I should've figured that she would've come looking for me.

"Alright I will tell him that one Ronan Erudon and Arme are looking for him." I said.

Ronan nodded. "Thanks." He then left, and as soon as he was far enough away, I collapsed to my knees. Shortly after that, another coughing attack took hold of me, and I coughed up more of that strange black stuff again.

I'm actually not sure what happened next, but I think Romaji was saying something, but I couldn't tell for sure. There was the motion off falling backwards before the world went black.

////////

It was now noon, a handful of hours after I had met the strange black haired boy at the shop. I was currently sitting on the edge of the fountain, waiting for Arme to arrive and hope that she had had better luck then I had.

Although that boy at the shop...there had been something oddly familiar about him somehow, but I wasn't quite sure why. I looked up at the sky, hands leaning back on the side of the fountain. What could it be about that boy...? As I thought about it, the boy's face did resemble Lass', if more pale and sickly looking. But the problems was, Lass didn't have black hair...would he really go so far as to change his hair color just to hid from us? I sighed. Arme certainty wouldn't like that thought. In fact, she'd probably be mad about it.

"Ronan!" I looked down to see the mage running towards me. I stood up to greet her.

"Any luck?" I asked her as she neared.

She shook her head and stopped in front of me. "No." She said, looking a bit down. "You?" I shook my head and the mage sighed.

"C'mon Arme, let's keep moving. Perhaps the next village we'll have better luck." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She just nodded and we proceeded to leave the village.

We were almost to the exit when a call came from behind us. "Hey, you two! Wait up!" When we stopped and looked behind, a boy looking about my age with short blue hair was running towards us.

"What is it?" I asked as the boy caught up to us.

"You're his friends, right?" The boy asked, looking a bit desperate and slightly breathless from running. However, he didn't fill out the 'who' he was referring to until he noticed our confused looks. "Lass!" He exclaimed, his desperation seeming to increase along with some frustration. "Your his friends, aren't you?! You need to come help him!"

"Wait, so then you know where he is?!" Arme asked, perking up and looking eager.

"Yes, now c'mon, let's go!" The boy urged, beginning to run off. Quickly so that we didn't lose the boy, we followed after him. Soon after we came to the shop that I had been at earlier, and the boy led us inside the building in the back. "This way, hurry!" He urged, leading us up some stairs. "He's in here." The boy said, opening the door at the top of the stairs.

Inside the room was the boy from earlier, but he looked worse then when I had seen him. He was laying on the bed, breathing heavily and seemingly unconscious. He was deathly pale, and a layer of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

"Is this really Lass?" Arme asked tentatively, slowly approaching the bed.

The boy who had led us here nodded. "Yes, that is very much Lass." The boy sighed. "He's been sick for some time now, and he kept pushing himself until he finally collapsed. I'm starting to get really worried about him..." The boy turned to Arme. "You're a mage, aren't you?" He stated more then asked. "Can't you perform some spell or something to cure him?"

Arme didn't reply, as she was busy stroking Lass' hair and seemingly not paying attention. So I answered for her. "Arme's magic only works on physical wounds, not disease. She does make a good nurse though." I added as an afterthought.

"Could one of you get me a bowl with some cool water in it along with a piece of cloth? I need to try and get Lass' fever under control." Arme asked without looking at the two of us.

The boy nodded and left the room, and a few minutes later he came back with what Arme had requested. "Here." He said, handing them to the mage. She nodded and took the offered items, dipping the cloth in the water before placing it on Lass' forehead.

I looked over to the boy, who was leaning against the wall closest to the door, watching Arme. "So who are you, anyway?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Oh, sorry about that, I'm Romaji. I grew up with Lass here. And if I had to guess, I'd say that you two are Arme and Ronan. Lass has told me plenty about you two, along with the other members of your Chase."

"Do I even want to know what he's said?" Knowing Lass, it wouldn't be some simple description.

"He did mention a knight obsessed with glory to his homeland and a crazy pyro happy mage."

I shook my head and muttered "I should known." Lass certainty never wold let me live that down.

"Stupid Lass." I heard Arme mutter, and when I looked over to her she had just finished taking off the bandage that had been on his arm, which turned out to have been hiding the mark he had received once becoming a Striker. "I swear if he dies I'll bring him back and kill 'im for dying on me!"

(A/N: Basically next part is just a convo between Ronan and Romaji on the balcony. It was just floating around my head and I had to get down. It's not too important to the story plot, and it may or may not be interesting to you. Feel free to skip it if you wish)

It was sometime later, and I was out on the balcony of the building, watching the sun set as Arme was inside still tending to Lass.

"Is she always like that?"

Turning around I found Romaji coming out of the building to join me on the balcony. "Arme? Ya, pretty much. She's been like that for about as long as I've known her."

"Really. But threatening to bring him back only to kill him, doesn't that kind've defeat the point of bringing him back?"

I just shrugged. "That's Arme for you."

Romaji shook his head. "Strange girl..." There was silence for a moment before he asked, "Are they close? More then friends, I mean. After all, Lass did speak of her with a sort of fondness, and he had that look on his face that was seemed like he really cared for her. Although he never did say anything about it and avoided it when I asked."

"It's been quite obvious to everyone but them." I answered. "I have actually tried to do something about it though."

"Oh really? And what ever could that be?"

"Just a few random things to try and get them to realize it. Mostly just comments hinting at it, but I did manage to get them to kiss once by pushing them together."

"And how did that go over with them?"

"Aheh, let's just say that Arme had fun setting off a firestorm on me. 'Crispy Ronan' Lass called it..."

Romaji laughed at the last part. "Yep, I was right. Strange girl. But in an odd sort of way they do fit together. I'm glad that Lass could find to care for him. He deserves it, especially with what he's been through."

"I would think so, what with being possessed and all."

"There was more then that too. He knew that he was the one to be Kaze's host since he was five, and would become such when he hit the chosen age, being ten. It's alot of burden to put on someone so young, and he's never liked the thought of it. He always got so moody and depressed whenever it came up." He laughed a bit. "Heh, you know, I was actually kind've glad when you chasers rescued him from his possession. Once I found that he had found a good home with all of you, I was reluctant to tell the others that I had found him."

"What do you mean?"

"Within our group, my main job was a tracker, so of course I was tasked with finding him once he went missing. It didn't take me very long to find him actually, but after seeing that he would most likely have a better life, I didn't feel like telling the others because of course The Mistress would come and take him back."

"Wait, so who's 'The Mistress'?"

"Oh, right. Of course you wouldn't know. The Mistress is Lass' mother, and she's called such because she gave birth to Kaze's next host. But anyways, for awhile I was just able to hide the fact that I knew where he was until his sister, Layla followed me on one of the times I went to check up on him. You'd remember her; crazy girl who tried to kill him in the ruins?"

"So that was his sister? Why would she want to kill him?" It was a crazy thought.

"Let's just say that she's not entirely sane anymore." Romaji shook his head. "So after she found out where Lass was I had to fess up that I knew. But of course I wouldn't let them know for how long I'd known and told them that I had just barely found out." He sighed heavily.

"Why are you so loyal to them? Isn't your group just a bunch of random people banded together who support Kaze'Aze?"

"Not exactly. It's a few clans together that all support Kaze. It's formed into more or less what you could call a secretive guild, I guess. They're not exactly the type of group that you can leave easily or betray."

* * *

Ok...I know this ch. seems to end at a weird spot imo, but as this story only has one possibly two ch. left, I decided to post this before I made you ppl wait any longer. I say this because I have trouble writing endings to things. Beginning and middle are always easy, but the end always gives me grief. I know where the characters end up in the end, but the writing how they get there is a problem. If I were to keep going on this chapter it would take much longer to get up. So here you go for now. hahahhahahaha wish me luck for writing the ending.

So in this chapter the three main chasers of this fic each get their own POV in. It ends w/Ronan as Arme's busy tending to Lass, said thief is unconscious, and I didn't think Romaji would be very interesting for you ppl to read (besides, don't really want an OC taking over the story), so the only one left was the knight. The next ch. will probably begin in his POV as well.

I've deemed Arme pyro happy because in all of her jobs, she has a least on thing pertaining to fire, wither it be fire itself or something that can set things on fire. I mean there's firebolt, meteor, firestorm, fireburst, big bomb, fire ring,deep impact, BM's main combo atk is swinging around fire...that's pyro happy if you ask me :P And in two of Ronan's jobs he says 'Glory to Kanavan' and most Ronan's I run w/tend to say that alot, so thus he is 'a knight obsesses with glory to his homeland'.

Till next time!

-Xire


	8. The Battle

**Ch 8**

There were voices all around me, familiar yet not at the same time. But what they were saying were lost to me. It all just came as garbled sounds in the dark. Dark, that was all I could see around me, not a bit of light anywhere. I tried to move, but soon found the effort to be futile. So I couldn't move, see anything, or even understand the sounds around me. Great, just great, that's all I need.

Shortly after my discovery of this, though, a light began to appear and make it's slow way towards me.. Wasn't there something about not going towards a bright light if you saw one? Oh well, it's not like I could move anyway, so I couldn't really do anything about it.

After what seemed like ages, the light finally touched me, and I found myself to be in what looked to be some sort of room. The walls were completely black, smooth, and flawless. Besides a small, flickering light hovering in the dead center of the room, there was nothing else around. No door, windows, or any type of furnishing.

It was then that I felt something slither over my shoulder to rest on my right over my heart. Confused, I wondered what it could possibly be when the thing pushed rather hard, nails digging in deep. As I doubled over in pain, suddenly realizing I could move, I heard a cold, quiet silky smooth voice behind me speak. "It's about time you made it, little Lass." Well, that certainty was a voice I wouldn't be mistaking anytime soon. Kaze'Aze was behind me.

Managing to detach myself from the witch, I turned around to face her, trying not to show the pain I felt from the injury she had given me. "Come to mess up my life some more, you old hag?" I asked, eyes narrowed. The witch had taken on a human form, although her skin was a ridiculous pale color, making me think of a snake. Her hair was sort of a Grey-purple color, and she held a long staff in one hand.

"You should be obeying me like an obedient tool, you little brat." She sneered, claw like nails reaching out to scratch my face, but I dodged instead.

"Sorry, but I never have, and never will approve of being your tool." I retorted. "I work for no one but myself."

"We'll just have to see about that, now won't we boy?" She said, pointing her staff at me. From it came a bolt of thick, blue black lightning heading straight for me. I manged to dodge to the side to avoid most of it, where instead of hitting me dead on the chest, it ended up with hitting my side. Surprised, I gasped in pain, barely managing to stay standing, clutching my side. Even though the blast was over, the skin on my side where it had been hit felt as if it was on fire. Which, mind you, is not a very pleasant feeling.

Before I could really regain my bearings, the witch was in front of me, and I suddenly found myself airborne, and hitting the rooms back wall rather painfully before falling to the ground, now completely winded.

_Back in the real world...._

"Ronan get over here quick!" I yelled down the stairs that led to the shop. Said knight had been at the shop with Lass' friend Romaji, helping with the running of it as with Lass sick there had only been one worker. So of course Ronan being Ronan had stepped in to help.

"What is it Arme?" The knight asked, appearing at the bottom of the stairs. He must've seen my worried look because he then asked, "Did something happen to Lass?"

"Just get up here would you?" I yelled back down the stairs, turning back into the room.

A few minutes later Ronan was standing by me next to the bed Lass was on. Said thief was now on his side, clutching the bed sheet tightly, a pained look on his face. "What happened?" Ronan asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. He just started acting like that out of no where, but I have no idea what could be causing him such pain." I knelt down in front of the bed and moved a few stray pieces of hair out of Lass' face. "Nothing I've done has helped, and I'm getting really worried."

Ronan looked as if he was about to say something, but Romaji cut him off while entering the room. "I bet it's Kaze's fault." He said calmly. I don't know why he could be so calm...

"Why do you say that?" Ronan asked.

"Well, I've heard of it before, where Kaze tries to kill of her host's mind in order to prevent any resistance." Romaji answered. "Apparently she only does it though when the host, instead of staying possessed and under submission, fights back for control of the body. Lass seems to be a good example of that. After you guys freed him the first time her control and even herself was weakened. It took her awhile to regain strength enough to take control of him once again. She caught Lass by surprise so he was unable to immediately launch an attempt to take control back from her." He glanced at Ronan as he said this, and I guessed he must've been watching somewhere from the sidelines when Lass had been controlled for the second time. "Now that I think about it, it was probably her that caused Lass to be so sick in an attempt to draw him into his mind to face her."

"It doesn't seem as if it's going so well." Ronan said, a worried look on his face. I frowned, looking at the stupid thief, who was seeming to be having trouble breathing.

_Inside Lass' mind...._

The witch was now holding me in the air by the throat, her nails digging into my skin. I had tried to pry her hands off, but to no avail. Why did she have to be so freakishly strong?! "Soon, you're body will be mine." She said in a quiet, menacing voice.

"Fat...chance." I said, forcing the words out, my hands still gripping the hand that was clamped around my neck. It wasn't easy talking when you were being strangled, you know. I tried kicking out, by it didn't do any good. This would be so much easier if I a weapon...or maybe if I were Jin. Then this hand to hand combat stuff would be piece of cake. He certainty makes it look that way, anyway.

"As soon as I kill your mind here, I will finally be able to continue my reign." My mind? Huh...I had never really thought as to where I was, but it's not like I had had much time to, either. I guess that would explain why I could actually see the witch instead of just hearing her voice. But that still didn't help my current predicament, as it was gradually becoming harder and harder to breath.

Wait...hadn't Arme once said something about being able to control what happens in your dreams after you realized what's going on? Technically being in a dream is the same as being in your mind, right? So maybe...I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to give myself some sort of weapon, my hands falling to my sides. At this point anything would do-as long as I could stab her with it. With some relief, I felt a dagger appear in each hand. Smirking a little, I reached up and implanted one of the daggers deep into the witch's arm, just below her elbow, dragging the blade through the skin closer to her wrist. She cried out in pain and let me go, and I landed on the floor roughly, coughing air into my burning lungs.

"You little brat!" The witch shrieked at me. I looked up at her to see her clutching her arm, blood seeping freely through the wound I had given her.

I stood up slowly. "You didn't really think I'd give up that easily, did you?" I said, still smirking slightly. Things would be going differently from here on out. Kaze'Aze yelled in frustration and launched a spell at me. I was ready for her this time though, and easily ducked out of the way.

And so the battle between me and the witch began. It went on for some time, both of us receiving multiple wounds. After a while there were pools of blood of the ground, stemming from the both of us, a new one forming as a new gash was created. After who knows how long, I finally managed to knock the witch's staff out of her hand, which she had been using for both the casting of spells, and for using it as a type of sword whereas either end that I was hit with equally sharp.

"You're finished." I said in a soft, menacing tone. With that, I will my daggers to be razor sharp, cutting the witch's head off in one swift moment. It fell to the floor in a splat of blood, the body standing up right for a few moments before joining it's head on the floor. A few seconds later both the head and the body sunk into the ground, disappearing entirely.

It was over...finally over...I thought to myself, swaying a bit on my feet. When nothing else came and no other danger presented itself, I finally let my self collapse, completely exhausted, not caring that I was lying in a pool of blood.

_In the real world..._

It was early in the morning, and I had taken over watching Lass after convincing Arme to get some sleep and promising that I would wake her should Lass' condition grow worse. The poor girl certainty needed the sleep, as she had been depriving herself of it over the past few days out of worry for the thief. It had taken a while, but I had finally managed to get the mage to agree to getting some rest. She was on the only other real bed in the room, which I assumed to have had been Romaji's beforehand. When he had offered for one of the two of us, I had promptly insisted that Arme take it, despite the mage's protests. After she had finally given in, Romaji had nodded to seemingly himself before going about and setting two cots, one for him and one for myself.

This morning would mark the fifth day since our arrival in this village and the discovery of Lass' condition. For awhile there it had seemed like it had not been going well at all for the thief. Two days ago, however, his condition changed, seemingly for the better. As time went by he seemed to be improving, and there was hope that he was winning the battle against Kaze'Aze. It was with that knowledge that I managed to convince Arme to get some sleep late afternoon yesterday.

"Uhn....." I blinked and looked away from the window from which I had been staring out of to where I had heard the sound: Lass' bed. "Would someone please tell the Anmon Guard to stop with the beating of my head..." Lass' voice was slightly muffled due to his face being buried in his pillow. I smiled slightly, glad that he was alright. Heh, I could only imagine Arme's reaction...she'd certainty be happy.

"So, finally decided to join us back in the realm of the living?" I asked.

/////////

I blinked when I heard the familiar voice of Ronan. I certainly hadn't been expecting that...Romaji, yes, but not Ronan. What was he doing here? Perhaps I was just hearing things...I turned my head to look over to where I had heard the voice, and, sure enough, sitting in a chair not to far away was Ronan. I blinked again. "What are you doing here?"

"Romaji brought us here after you collapsed nearly a week ago. He was pretty worried about you, and thought that we might be able to help." The knight answered.

"Of course. He never could stop himself from worrying about me." I said, sighing. "It figures he would be the one to blow my cover."

"You know, despite the fact that Arme will be happy that you are alright, she's still going to be mad about you running off like you did."

I winced at the mage's name. "Aheh...don't remind me. I just imagine she already has a firestorm ready and waiting for me. Heh, all the more reason for me to flee out of here." I said, slowly trying to push myself up from the bed. But my arms gave up and I ended up falling back down, one arm hanging off the bed. "Or maybe not..." I muttered, my head now swimming more then it had been when I had first woken up, and blowing a piece of my white hair out of my face. Huh, the dye must've worn off sometime while I was out. I sighed. "So how long, exactly, have I been out?" I asked, curious now.

"Today will mark the fifth day."

"Really, it hadn't seemed that-" But I was cut off by a gasp from behind me.

"Lass?" Came the tentative voice from behind me.

I wasn't really sure wither or not to face the mage. I had left quite suddenly, and I guessed I owed it to her to at least face her since she had found me. "Yes, Arme?" I asked, not quite sure what to expect.

The next thing I knew I was being hugged from behind. "You made it! You're still here! I'm so relieved!" Well I guess that was better then her yelling at me or something...there was a pause. "Ohhh you idiot!" She said in an annoyed tone, hitting me in the head and adding to the ever growing ache.

"Ow! Arme, you know I'm already sore enough as it is there!" I said, managing to looked back at her. What I saw surprised me, however; I could see tears brimming at the corners of the mage's eyes, threatening to spill over. "Arme?" I asked, curious.

At that moment she hugged me again. "Don't ever do that to me again!"

I sighed. "I'm sorry Arme...it's just...I didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me."

"You big idiot." She muttered, and I could feel something wet drop onto my skin. So she was crying...great, that made me feel even worse about what I'd done. "So it's okay to take that Romaji guy with you and not either of us?" She asked quietly.

"In my defense, that wasn't planned. I found him at the castle's entrance and he decided by himself to come with me." I told her.

She sighed. "I'm not letting you get away again." She muttered. "I will tell you that if you do ever leave like you did ever again I promise I will firestorm you when I find you, got it?"

"Alright alright...I promise."

"Good." She seemed satisfied with that. She then felt my forehead. "You're still a little warm...you should get some more rest. You still have to recover, you know."

As she mentioned it, I did feel myself starting to drift off. But before I completely succumbed to my exhaustion, I noticed something was missing; "Hey...where's Ronan...?"

/////////

It was a handful of days later when I was finally up and moving about, much to my pleasure. Because really, laying in a bed all day can be really quite boring. There had been multiple times when I had wanted to get up and find something to do, but Arme had forbidden it, saying I still needed to recover. I had almost succeed in getting up once, but the mage had threatened to firestorm me then and there I didn't lay back down. Since I preferred boredom over crispiness, I took her advice and laid back down.

"You are coming back with us, right?" Arme asked one day after she had deemed that I was fully recovered.

"Well..." Would it really be alright? I think so...after all, I couldn't find any traces the witch left within me after defeating her in the battle in my mind. "Perhaps..."

"None of that! It's either yes or no, and you better say yes!" The mage demanded, hands on her hips with a stubborn look on her face. Man, she looked so cute like that...I shook my head to clear the thought.

"Alright, I'll come back to the castle with you two." I stated.

"Yay!" Arme exclaimed. "C'mon, let's go!" With that she grabbed my hand and dragged me down the stairs to the shop where Romaji and Ronan were.

"Oh look, the two lovebirds have finally decided to join us." Ronan said once we had arrived at shop.

"Yes, they do make a good couple, don't they?" Romaji commented, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh shh you!" Arme said, half glaring at my childhood friend. "I expect that it him" she jabbed a thumb at the knight "but there will be none of that from you or it'll be your turn to be crispy!"

I couldn't help but laugh a little. It was true that over the course of my recovery we had grown closer, in as much so that I had actually managed to kiss her, earning a grand blush from the mage. But she hadn't done anything to denote that she hadn't liked it, so I took that as a good sign. That, and she had been frequent to grab my hand at random moments. I, in turn would most times pull her close, enjoying the warmth that her touch brought with it.

"Romaji," I started, pulling the mage close to me and wrapping my arms around her, "I'm going to be heading back to the castle with these two, so what are you gonna do?"

Romaji shrugged. "Eh, I'll probably stay here. Besides, can't just leave these people without a shop, now can I? Although I might have come check in on you every once and a while and make sure you haven't blown anything up." He said, smirking.

"Hey, I haven't done anything like that since I was six." I protested.

"Sure sure. Now get going you three! You've got a long trip a head of you." Romaji said, making a motion as to shoo us off. But he was smiling all the while.

And so we did leave. Sometime later around half-way back to the castle, I said while walking, "Oh and Ronan, don't think I've forgotten about that revenge I promised you awhile back."

"Oh ya!" Arme exclaimed. "We still need to do that!" She was giggling slightly.

"Oh come on, do you really think that is still necessary?" The knight protested. "Everything turned out alright, now didn't it? There is no need to do anything like revenge."

"Nope, I still think it needs to be done. There's no escaping it, right Arme?" I asked, looking at the mage.

"Of course! And it's going to be very, very fun." She responded.

Ronan sighed. "I'm doomed then, aren't I?"

"Pretty much." I said simply.

"Perhaps I should've stayed with Romaji then. Probably safer."

"You never know! There's something we could just easily sick on you to drag you back home!" Arme corrected, and I just nodded. Yes, I bet Elesis wouldn't be happy to learn that the male knight had stayed away. I couldn't help but laugh a little. Yes, that would definitely be an amusing sight.

The next day we reached the castle, and for me at least, it was a little awkward, especially since I hadn't been planning on coming back. Coming back into the chase was easy for Ronan and Arme, as they hadn't done anything wrong like attacking another member before leaving. All they got was a light scolding from Knight Master. Me, on the other hand, had more to face up to. Knight Master just stared at me for a few minutes, calmly observing me. Which in turn made me nervous as to what she was thinking, or even of what she would do. Eventually she asked me what had happened, and I told her. I told her that the witch was gone, and not to worry about her anymore. Of this, Arme and Ronan vouched for me, stating what they knew and that nothing had happened to suggest my being possessed. After this, more staring and more silence ensued, of which was starting to drive me crazy. But eventually, the Knight Master had spoken. "Just don't run off again." Was all she said before dismissing us.

With the confrontation with Knight Master over, there was the rest of the chase to deal with. It almost felt as if I was back to joining for the first time, new and unsure of what I was capable of. At least that's what it seemed like they thought of me, anyways. It made it so that I was far more comfortable being around Arme and Ronan, at least they acted they way they always did around me. Oh well, the others will get used to me again eventually, I suppose. So for now, everything is as good as it's gonna get, and I'm fine with that.

**Fin**

* * *

Ok, yes, this IS the final chapter...unless I feel like actually doing the whole 'so many years later' aftermath things that's been running around my head. But there's no guarantee that I'll actually do it, so don't get your hopes up too terrible high. Anywho, that's all I have to say, so ta ta and hope you all enjoyed reading this story! :)

-Xire


	9. The Epilogue

**Note:**This epilogue takes place the first of the one shots that I have written. I'd recommend that you have _at least_ read the first of the one shots or a certain something Lass has obtained might not make sense to you (as I just couldn't leave it out, there were too many great lines because of it in my head!) :P

Enjoy!

* * *

Sometimes being able to remember your childhood can really be quite a burden. There were times where I wish I could just forget it all, and other times where I wish I could just forget certain things. Like Layla, for instance. We had been the closest siblings as children and now she wants to kill me. Over the past six months that it had been since I returned to the chase, she's attacked me around eleven times at various locations. Never at the castle, though, as she didn't seem to know that's where I lived. I was thankful for that bit though, as I had at least one place that I could relax and worry about her coming out of no where. I sighed and rolled over on my bed so that I was laying on my stomach, one arm hanging off the bed while the other was being used as a pillow, fully dressed but lacking the desire to go anywhere.

"_We'll always be together, won't we?"  
_

"_Of course we will!"_

I sighed again, closing my eyes this time. Heh, so much for that promise....

"_He's nothing but a filthy traitor!"_

I had always known that Layla was a bit jealous of my being the who would become the witch's host, even if she never really seemed to show it. But sometimes she would drop decently large hints that she was jealous, mostly by telling me that it was 'a great honor' every time I complained about it. As such one time I had even offered to give the position to her, but it wasn't really possible as once the host was chosen it couldn't be changed. It makes some sense that she would be mad about me gladly accepting the freedom the Chase provided, but not turning into a psycho woman that was trying to dispose of me every time I turned around.

"_Traitor!" _

I knew that I was technically a traitor to the clan, and to the witch, but that never seemed to matter much, as the only ones there I could ever stand had been Layla and Romaji. But why...why did she have to go so far off the deep end? She wasn't even acting like my sister anymore...I clenched the hand that was hanging off the bed into a tight fist, a deep frown finding it's way onto my face at the thought. It was then that I felt a hand gently unclench my fist and slipping into my hand while another brushed some hair away from my face.

There was no mistaking that warm touch. I open my eyes slowly. "Arme?" I asked, seeing the mage the kneeling in front of me.

"Did I wake you up?" She asked.

I shook my head, sitting up. "I was already awake, just thinking about some things."

She got up and sat next to me. "Too much thinking can be bad for you, you know. Just look at Elesis!"

I laughed a little. "Don't let her hear that."

Arme laughed a little herself before changing the subject. "What were you thinking about then? It didn't seem very pleasant. It looked like you were having a bad dream."

I shook my head and stood up, beginning to make my way for the door. "I was just thinking about my sister, Layla...you know, that girl that's always trying to kill me."

I could feel Arme's hand in mine once more, keeping me from continuing onward. I didn't look at her as she spoke. "You never said she was your sister." She said, a frown in her voice.

"Heh, oh really?" I stated more then asked, trying to mask the depression I felt. "Well she is. She's my twin, actually." If Arme hugging me from behind was any indication at how well I was hiding what I felt, then I must've been doing a pretty bad job. I must be going soft or something.

"You probably can't just talk to her, can you?" The mage asked softly, her head resting on my back.

"Not without losing my head first." I muttered bitterly. "I've tried talking sense, she just won't hear it. She's too busy trying to run me through."

"You sound like you used to be close."

"Of course we were. Besides Romaji, we were the only thing that each other really had. We didn't have a father, and our mother never showed either of us any affection. She probably would've left us completely alone if it weren't for my being 'the chosen one' she still mostly left us alone anyways, preferring instead to assign Romaji as my caretaker. The only reason she did that was because in order for her to keep her high status was to make sure that nothing happened to me. Romaji was ordered to just watch over me, and was drilled in the importance of his task, but he still took care of both Layla and I like we were his own younger siblings. But he couldn't be there all the time. So it was only natural that Layla and I became what I guess you could call practically inseparable-because one was always around when the other needed them. We understood each other better then anyone else did...at least I thought so." I whispered the last part.

"What do you mean?"

"Layla's gone crazy with jealousy-more so then I ever thought possible. Sure, I had always known that she was a little jealous of my position, and it figures that she'd be mad that I betrayed Kaze'Aze, but..." I trailed off, not really wanting to finish the thought.

"You never thought she'd tried to kill you." Arme finished softly for me, and I nodded.

"I thought she of all people would understand how I felt about being that foul witches' host; I mean, I certainly complained about it enough." I said quietly, looking down and felling something wet slide down my cheek. Reaching up I brushed it off with a hand, only for it to come back wet. Crying. I was actually crying. I hadn't done that since I was little...

It was then that Arme grabbed my hand once again and began to drag me from my room. "C'mon, let's go and do something to get your mind off it until you can think of a solution for long." I nodded slowly, letting her pull me forwards while quickly wiping my eyes dry. Arme never was one to let me angst for very long.

Before we got to decided on what exactly to do, it was discovered that a new mission had been put up by Knight Master for us. It was a relatively simple mission; go to a nearby village and find out what the disturbance there was and, if possible, dispose of it. I just hoped that the 'disturbance' wasn't my sister.

So Arme and I began to make our way for the village, and once we were near the mage asked, "How about after we're done here do you want to help me study in the library?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not." It was always interesting studying with Arme, even if I couldn't understand even half of the spells in the books let alone pronounce them. But that didn't matter as I always enjoyed watching Arme as she discovered a new spell she wanted to try, or her reaction when she would find a new piece of interesting magical history.

We arrived at the town, to find that all was calm. It was mildly surprising, but perhaps the matter had managed to clear itself. Although, that didn't seem to likely, especially when monsters were running about. The villagers could just be putting up a false pretense that everything was alright while hiding their fear over whatever the problem could be. Now that wouldn't surprise me at all.

But after asking around for a bit, no one gave in, not even the slightest hint that they were hiding something. They all seemed to be telling the truth when they said they didn't know what we were talking about. And trust me, I can usually tell when people are lying to me.

"So then what could it be? Could the reports have possibly been a fake?" Arme asked after our interrogation of the villagers, the both of us now just a few paces outside of the village.

"Like a prank, perhaps?" I suggested, looking over at the mage.

Arme opened her mouth to speak, but an all-to familiar voice cut her off from above. "Not a prank but a trap! Something I used just to lure you out here, traitor!" With that there was no other waring that she was here, and I had to hurry and block Layla's incoming attack before she sliced my head off. "Well lookie here, the all knowing big brother actually fell for my trick." She said coolly, a smirk on her face as she pulled her swords away, reading for another attack.

"I never said I was all knowing, and never will." I said, ready for her next attack.

With no further comments, we both broke into attack, her going for the kill while I was just going for disabling. I certainty didn't want her dead, instead preferring to try and get her back to her normal self, more the way I remembered her to be. But for that to happened I'd have to get her to the point where she couldn't attack anymore. Which would take some fighting and giving her quite the stash of wounds, but if it would get her back to the way she was supposed to be, then it was worth it.

The battle went on for a while, her speed matching my perfectly. We both managed to get a collection of wounds, mine seeming more in number but less in severity while hers were fewer but worse then mine. She didn't seem like she was about to give up, even if the majority of the blood on the ground was coming from her. This was causing me to worry, as it was quite possible to die from blood loss. She would have to get her wounds treated to soon if that were to be prevented. I frowned as she didn't relent, slowly moving out of my battle stance and letting my Nodachi drop to the ground. I knew she would probably kill me because of it, but, I had no other option. I couldn't bear it if I were the reason she had met her death from. But before she could hit me, wide, green wind came from seemingly no where, slamming into Layla and sending her crashing into a near by building. I was surprised at first, but then remembered the only person that could have possibly come from: Arme. I looked over to my left to see said mage frowning at me and tapping her foot impatiently.

"And what exactly do you think you are doing?!" She asked impatiently, and I could tell she wasn't happy with me.

"Sorry Arme but I can't just kill her-" I started, but was cut off abruptly.

"Oh so that means that it's alright for you die instead?! Didn't you even stop to think about those that you would be leaving behind?!" She was practically yelling now, and I could see the hurt reflected in her eyes, and I realized my mistake.

"Arme I..." But my words were stuck in my throat and I looked down at the ground as the mage began to approach me. I wouldn't be surprised if she decided to firestorm me...but instead, a surprise greeted me, but it was still a painful surprise. A placed a hand on my cheek, rubbing it where Arme had slapped it. I looked over to her, to she her head down, eyes hidden, shoulders shaking and her hands curled into tight fits. I sighed and pulled her into a hug, trying not to let my guilt eat at me too much. "I'm sorry, Arme. I really am." I muttered. "I know I'm an idiot and you should probably give up on me."

She buried her head in my chest and her hands gripped my clothes tightly. "You're right, you are an idiot." She muttered. After a few moments she looked up at me. "But you're my idiot." An ever so slight smile came onto her face. "And you're lucky you're cute."

"It's gotta be the ears, right?" I asked. After all, she had said multiple times how cute I was with cat's ears...

She laughed a little. "Well they do help." She said this as she reached up and touched one of my ears, causing it to flick slightly. Her smile grew brighter. "But you were cute before then."

"Right..." I muttered. I looked around, noticed something was missing. "Hey, where did Layla go?" Great, just great, she was gone again. But who knows with those wounds...she might not make it...I bit my lip, torn between wanting to go after her and staying with Arme, as I didn't want to expose her to how dangerous Layla could be. It didn't help that I could see the trail of blood that my sister had left behind in her escape.

"Go catch her." I was surprised when Arme's voice cut threw my thoughts.

"What?"

"She's your sister, and I can tell how much she means to you. Go catch her and make sure she's alright." Arme said softly. "But," She reached around and grabbed my tail, tugging on it slightly, "you better not die or anything or I might just have to make you a real cat again permanently so I can keep an eye on you."

I laughed slightly. "Right right." I gave her a light kiss on the forehead as she let go of my tail. "Thank you, Arme." I said quietly before pulling away and running off, following the trail of blood.

I actually didn't take to long for the blood trail to lead me to a small house that was resting in what seemed to be a very old and abandoned part of the village. I slowed my pace down to a walk, slowly opening the door when I reached it. I was surprise, something of which my day seemed to be full of so far. Inside the house turned out to be only a single room, with my sister laying in the middle of it, eyes closed. But that wasn't the surprising bit; no, it was the fact that all of her wounds had completely gone, nothing but dried blood remaining as a testament that she had been wounded in the first place. I opened the door a little more to get a better look only to find several potion bottles of varying sizes scattered about, although most of them were medium or large, with a few small ones randomly here and there. There had to be at least twenty there...well, I guess that explains how she healed so fast. I shook my head. I couldn't get distracted, I had a goal to accomplish.

I stepped into the room, the door closing behind me. "Layla?" I asked. No reply came, so I tried again, getting a little closer. "Layla I need to talk to you." At first I thought that wasn't about to answer me yet again, but quite abruptly she began to laugh. And it didn't even sound all that sane.

"Talk? WITH YOU?" She said, sitting up before laughing some more, her words seeming slightly slurred. "Why would I talk with some filthy no good traitor like YOU?" She asked, standing up, swaying slightly as she did so. She was seriously beginning to seem as if she was drunk...had she really drunk all these potions in one sitting?! Layla began to walk towards me slowly, seeming as if unable to walk straight. Well, I had always wondered what would happen if you drank to many potions to fast...I guess this is my answer. Once she was close enough, she swung her swords at me in a drunk fashion, which I easily dodged.

"Yes, talk with me. There's some things we need to get straight." I stated, dodging another wild swing from her sword. "Like why you feel you have to kill me."

"I told you, because you are a stupid traitor. Traitors get met with death. Traitor to Kaze'Aze." She replied, rambling slightly.

"But you of all people she understand why. You shouldn't be nearly as bent on my death as you are. My betraying the witch should have nothing to do with this." I stated calmly. Since she was drunk perhaps I would be able to get some decent answers out of her. But she didn't say anything what I had said, instead she hung her head, her swords hanging limply at her sides. I inched closer. "Layla?" I asked tentatively. Shortly after I called her name, she began to laugh once more. But this time it seemed even less sane then last time, if that were possible.

She looked up suddenly, her face livid and no longer holding the lazy drunk look. No, this was a bit more scary then that. "Why?! Why you ask!? I'll tell you why!" With that she charged at me, swords held at the ready. I prepared to defend myself, but soon realizing that I had neglected to pick my Nodachi back up after dropping it in the last battle. I realized this a bit late as I wasn't able to avoid all of Layla's attack, one of her swords crashing into my right shoulder. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out as I felt her sword cutting threw sink and braking the bone underneath. "Because you broke it!" She yelled, pushing on the sword, driving it deeper in to my shoulder, and I'm sure that if I would've stayed put, she would've cut my arm off, but I didn't let her. Instead used the hand of my good arm to plunge one of the knives I always kept hidden into the arm that was driving the sword ever deeper. She cried out and to my relief let go of her sword, leaving me to wrench it out of my shoulder. Blood was flowing freely from my shoulder, the pain never dimming and almost seeming worse now that the offending weapon was removed. Now that the attack was momentarily over, it gave me time to think about what my sister had said. Because I broke something? But broke wh-oh. That.

"_We'll always be together, won't we sis?"_

"_Of course we will!"_

I sighed. So this really was all my fault. "Layla I'm-"

"Don't try to say you're sorry! Because I know you're not! How could you be when you so willingly left me! I hate you for it!" She yelled, charging at me once again. But this time I was ready, blocking her with her own sword that I held in my good hand. Unfortunately it didn't take long for her to send that spinning across the room as my strength kept dwindling ever more the longer my shoulder was allowed to bleed.

"Layla you don't understand-" I tried to reason with her, but it didn't go so well. Instead, she swung her sword at me again, and this time with noting to block with and not wanting to attempt another dodge, I went to jump over her. But there was something that I had forgotten about: the fact that I had a tail. As such, when I was just about to go over her head, my sister grabbed my tail, yanking me from the air and slamming me to ground. There's a very good reason for why cat's get mad when you pull their tail, as I found out. Because let me tell you, it _hurts._ It felt as if someone was trying to pull a limb off. But I didn't get much time to dwell on this new pain, as Layla's sword was coming at me, looking as if I would slice me in half. But I rolled away to dodge the blow now lying on my stomach, my bad shoulder complaining quite profusely.

"Don't tell me I don't understand!" She yelled, grabbing my tail once again and this time throwing into the wall, leaving me completely winded and sore.

"Layla, listen..." I began as soon as I had my breath back. "You had to have understood that I would eventually become possessed-" But she cut me off again, something I was beginning to get used to.

"But I didn't understand! You said you'd no longer be you but I didn't understand! I didn't know how you could be anything but yourself!" Her eyes were closed, tears streaming down her face. It seemed she had finally broken, her angry energy used up. I forced my self to stand up, using the wall for support, starting towards her and taking slow and shaky steps towards my sister. "I know I said being chosen was a great honor but that's only because that's what everybody said! I thought they meant by you being host is that you just got to take care of some special item or pet!" I was almost with in arms length of her now. "But then the ceremony came and I saw it, and you left me even after we promised to stick together!" She opened her eyes and looked at me as she said this.

"Layla I..." I began tiredly, my beaten up body wanting nothing more then to collapse on my bed back at the castle. I began to reach out to touch her when she interrupted me.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled, clamping her eyes shut once again and stabbing one of her swords blindly forward and right into my stomach.

The pain was instantaneous and blocked out the pain from my other countless wounds. I grit my teeth against it though, as I couldn't give up now, not just yet. I forced myself forwards, arms raising slowly so that I could wrap my poor misguided sister into a hug. I heard an audible gasp as my arms went around her shoulders, but she didn't say anything. "Please, please sis, just listen to me." I managed to get out, ignoring the blood that coming out of the side of my mouth. "You don't know how sorry I am that you didn't understand what was going on and that I left you." I took a few breaths, unable to speak for too long with out a break in my current condition. "But you should've asked if what you thought was what was really going to happen and I would've told you..." A few more breaths were taken, "...just like you, I also had a misunderstanding. I thought you were jealous. Please...for-forgive me..." It was getting harder and harder to breath, my vision steadily worsening as the seconds went by. "I never...wanted to...to leave you..." I was breathing deeply, as if I had just run a marathon.

"You...you didn't?" Layla's voice was soft and I almost didn't catch what she said.

"Of...of course. Why would I...want to...leave my sis...a-all alone?" I asked slowly, having to take a breath every few words. "I really did...try an...and get away...but nothing really...worked..."

"Promise?"

I managed a weak smile. "What kind've brother...do you think I'd be if...if I didn't?" I paused, trying to regain my breath but it wasn't going so well. But I still had something else to say. "I..l-lo...love...y...you...sis..." I managed, laying my head on her shoulder.

I could feel some sort of warm liquid on my shoulder but at this point I couldn't tell wither it was my blood or Layla's tears. My conscious mind was fleeing quickly, and thus what my sister kept whispering didn't process at first. But eventually I was able to make out 'I'm sorry....I'm so sorry...' I was faintly aware of the feeling of the sword being removed from me, and myself falling as I no longer had any support to keep me standing. But the fall to the ground was easy, almost as if someone had been holding me and gently setting me on the floor. But I couldn't be sure. The floor itself also seemed to be a little too soft, and it was more like my head was in someone's lap then laying on cold stone. I laid there, staring at the ceiling but not really seeing it, as the blood kept flowing from me, creating a pool underneath me. I hadn't realized that Layla was there until I felt something be pressed against my lips. "Please...please drink it. It's the last potion I have, but it should do some good, right?" I think she said. I don't remember the liquid entering my mouth but I did know when ran down my throat, soothing like a warm bath. Wounds all about my body stopped bleeding and dried up, but the potion did nothing for the biggest wound. I was able to notice a small, slim vial that held a drop or so left in the bottom of it as the container moved away. So, a small red potion...well at least she had tried something.

It was then that something happened, something broke I think, something big. Either that or it was something important. But I couldn't tell, as everything now seemed muted and there wasn't anything in my sight that wasn't blurred. If I had been a bit less out of it, the purple blob that was suddenly in my view would've spooked me. But not now, as my mind was far to gone to be startled. I think the blob was saying something though...what was it? I tried to concentrate on the words and they slowly came to me. "Lass! Lass can you hear me?!" Something was placed on my cheek. Something warm and comforting. I blinked a few times, trying to clear my vision as to find out who the speaker was. As the image came into focus, I slowly put a hand over the one that was on my cheek.

"A-A-A-Arme." I managed out, my voice barely above a whisper. She nodded, and I was barely able to tell that the multicolored shapes behind her were the other members of the Chase. A conversation went on above me, but I couldn't make it out, my mind going far too blank to pay much attention. But if I had to guess what the conversation was about, I would guess Layla explaining to the others what had happened. Oh well, they'd sort it out themselves. While they do that, I might just go and take a little cat nap...

It wasn't until I felt something that felt like a limb was going to be pulled out of it's socket did I utter a groan and open my eyes again. "I'm not letting you break our promise again, Lassy." A frowning, white haired blob said. Promise...promise...wait. Layla was the only other white haired person I knew besides myself...oh right. Promise. Layla, I really just can't leave her alone again...

"You're not allowed to leave from our end either, buster." A poke in the nose by the purple blob-wait that was Arme...and some talking that I couldn't make out, the voices all blending into one.

Slowly I reached out and took hold of the hand of the girl that was most important to me non-related, and then the hand of the one most important related. "I don't...plan...on...leave...leaving." More blood spilling from my mouth as I attempted to speak. "Just...just a li...little...nap..." With that said, my eyes began to close once more, sleep now more tempting then ever. There was that same tug again, but I didn't really care this time. I was going to get the sleep I wanted to, so I ignored the pull. I think there was something going on around me, something frantic, but that wasn't my problem. I was going off duty. I could feel that warmth pour down my throat again, feeling as if a warm blanket had been wrapped around me, but I couldn't place as to why.

How had all this even started? How did I find myself where I was now, dying by the hands of my own sister? Oh yes, now I remember...

"_We'll always be together, won't we sis?" A small, white haired boy looking to about the age of six, asked the girl sitting next to him on the bed. The girl looked to be about the same age, and had the same white hair as the boy._

"_Of course we will!" The girl gave the boy a hug. "We're twins so we have to stick together, right?" She was smiling. "Even after the ceremony I'll still be by your side."_

"_Promise?" The boy asked, looking at the girl._

"_What kind've sister would I be if I didn't?"_

_The boy laughed happily and hugged the girl back._

That promise, that broken childish promise had been the source of it all. It was foolish to make it in the first place. Something like that could have never been kept; especially for what I had been chosen for. I never should have said something so utterly foolish, then no of this would've probably happened. Romaji did say once that I wasn't the brightest. Heh, I guess I deserve my fate then for putting my own sister through so much.

If I hadn't gone out today to finally put an end to Layla's attacks things probably would've been different as well. But then, I couldn't just leave my sister in the frame of mind that she had been in. I either had to try and snap her out of it or I would've had to...to kill her. I hadn't really much cared for the last option, so I had set myself on going with the first. That had turned out to work, if but painfully and probably at the cost of my life. At least my sister would be alright. Romaji at the least would take her in, that knowledge a relief.

Then there was Arme...ah Arme, I'm sorry...I won't be able to study with you later like we had planned. I do hope that you know how much I cared for you, even if I never really found the right words to say it...

////////////

_A boy was crying on his bed, and he couldn't be more the eight or nine. He was curled up into a tight ball, trying to be as silent as possible so he wouldn't wake the sleeping girl next to him, his back to the girl._

_A hand was placed on his shoulder, causing the boy to jump a little. "Are you ok, brother?"_

"_I'm fine, really. It was just...just a bad dream is all." He said, not looking at the girl and hurriedly trying to try the tears from his face._

"_You're a terrible liar, brother."_

"_Are not! You're just special in a way I can't hide anything from you." _

"_And that's because I'm your twin! Now c'mon, tell me what's really wrong."_

_The boy sniffed, trying to hold back his tears but failing miserably. He turned to face his sister. "It's just that...I don't want to be alone..." Tears were streaming down his face now._

"_Don't worry I'll always be with you! We have our promise, don't we?"_

_The boy managed a small smile and a nod. "You're right...thanks sis."_

That scene happened a lot in my childhood, I'd be crying at night after thinking to much about the ceremony and what awaited me afterwords that that conversation with very little changes would ensue. Layla had always been good for comforting me when I was upset, which happened a lot, believe it or not. I had thought many times that she was the stronger of the two of us, as she didn't seem to cry near as much as I did. There were times where I'd think that she was much more suited to being the chosen one then I was, but after that thought would then be the one that I wouldn't wish my fate on anyone. A complete takeover of your body and your life, leaving you to be locked up somewhere in the recess of your own mind, unable to escape and regain control.

The scene before me changed, and morphed itself into another memory.

"_C'mon Lassy hurry up you gotta see this!" His sister was dragging him through the hallways toward were the pair along with their friend Romaji's secret place was._

"_What's so special? I've been here several times." The boy said in a tired manner, his face and eyes making him seem older then he was._

"_I promise today there is something special! I guarantee it!" She said happily. She then pushed him through the secret entrance. _

"_Why is it so dark in-" But the boy was cut off with a happy cheer as the lights were suddenly switched on._

"_Surprise!" Romaji exclaimed happily as he jumped out from his hiding place._

"_What's this?" The boy asked his sister curiously, looking at her._

"_What else? It's a surprise birthday for you, silly!" The girl replied. "Look, we even managed to get a cake from the market!"She said, pointing to the table in the middle of the room where a small, white iced cake had been placed._

"_We knew that because of what tomorrow is, there won't be anything special going on for your birthday. So, we decided to throw a little party ourselves, even if it isn't much." Romaji said, going over to the table and beginning to cut the cake into three pieces, one for each of them._

"_Really?!" The boy asked, still in shock._

_His sister nodded as she accepted a slice of cake from the pair's friend. "Of course! I mean, why not? Just because the adults are spoil sports doesn't mean we have to be!"_

_The boy smiled, accepting his own piece of cake. "But you know sis, there is something the two of you forgot."  
_

"_What's that?" The girl asked, looking worried now._

"_It's your birthday tomorrow too, you know." The boy answered._

_The girls eyes lit up. "That's right! YAY! Party party party!" She danced about, grabbing Romaji for a sort of impromptu dance partner._

It was funny how we could be mature and yet still act like the children we were at any given moment, especially Layla. She was always the quickest at jumping at acting like a child. I guess you could say I had been frequently like that as well, but that was only because of the crying, not the hyper-activeness like Layla would be. As the years went by, though, I stopped crying and in place of it was silence, and the beginning of the habit to keep to myself. And then there was Romaji, who also seemed to be the most mature of us all. Perhaps it was just because of his position as my bodyguard/healer/caretaker or whatever it was you want to call it. But Layla and I just deemed him our adopted older brother. He did have his moments where his own childish nature would come out, even it if wasn't very often. The scene before me kept playing out, the eating of cake soon turning into the _throwing_ of cake. It had all been very fun, and had been the perfect way to spend my last free day before the ceremony occurred the next day.

The scene changed again, and this time it took a turn for the worse.

_A hand gripped his arm, and pulled the boy off the bed, despite his protests. He kept pulling and struggling, trying to get the arm off so that he could run away, but to no avail. Finally, he was taken to a large room, with what looked to be an extremely old women sitting in a chair. The boy was held just in front of the women, and was made sure that he stayed in one place, despite his struggling. What seemed to be a short spell was uttered:_

"_As the old fades away and turns to dust, a new one is prepared;_

_The host is ready for you, O Queen of Darkness!_

_Take your rightful place so that your reign may continue!"_

_With that said, a black/purple mist came out of the woman's mouth and headed towards the boy, who began to struggle even more._

"_No! No, I don't want to!" The boy yelled. "Lemme go!" He yelled desperately._

I looked away from the scene, not liking being confronted with one of my absolute least favorite memories. So instead of watching the scene in front of me, I explored more of the room. There wasn't really any detail anywhere though, as I had only been in this one once in my life on that retched day, and then I had been too busy with trying to escape to take in what the room actually really looked like. So for now, it stayed as a very dull, plain gray room. As I surveyed the room my eyes landed on the door, where I could just barely see Layla peeking into the room. I went over to where she was and watched her. I had never really taken the time to notice before, but she looked shocked and terribly scarred. I really wish she hadn't seen it...I began to reach a hand out, wanting nothing more to hug her and tell her everything would be alright and that I would someday return...but right as my hand was about to touch her, things changed. It was still the same memory, only now instead of watching the scene like a bystander, I was actually the small boy, frightened and struggling to get free like no other. The memory finished playing, ending terribly like always.

The next I new I was floating in a sort of strange gray mist, nothing anywhere in any direction.

A chime went off, sounding both close and far off at the same time.

Other sounds went off, but I couldn't make out what they were. Voices, frantic and despite, perhaps? Or footsteps. Or both even. But it was impossible to really tell.

Moments after silence began to reign, the chime went of again, sounding the same as the first time.

The feeling of a warm touch, as if hair was being brushed from my face.

Then the chime again.

I was beginning to notice a pattern; something would always happen after the chime would sound, both it and the feeling growing closer each time.

The feeling of an ear rub and the desire to purr if possible.

The chime rang once more, sounding as if it was right next to me.

_It's time to breathe._

I opened my eyes slowly, to find the sight of a ceiling greet me. I blinked. Was this still within my dream world or was I actually awake now...? It was then that I noticed that someone was actually rubbing one of my ears, seemingly a bit absent minded. I looked to my right to find Layla sitting in a chair next to the bed I was in, reading a book.

"Lay...la?" I asked slowly, my voice quiet.

My sister jumped and dropped her book, the rubbing stopping. "Oh you're awake!" She exclaimed happily once she had recovered. I looked around, and was greeted with the familiar sight of the healer's ward inside the Grand Chase castle. Huh, I guess Arme and the others must've taken me back here.

"What are you doing?" I asked my sister.

"Uh, well the mage said you like your ears rubbed so I was really just doing it absent absentmindedly-"

"No, I mean what are you doing here?"

"Well, I uh, kind've followed the others back here..." She hung her head a bit. "I told them everything that happened. It was a bit rough at first, but when I told them that I never wanted you dead let alone hurt you as badly as I did, they seemed willing to give me a chance. Especially the blond haired girl and the blue haired boy. It was the girl that actually suggested trying to trust me." She frowned. "But the mage, she doesn't seem to like me much....she was the most reluctant to trust me. Although I don't think she really does, just says she does. After all, whenever she's hear she keeps glancing at me like I'm about to go on the attack or something."

"That's Arme for you." I said, attempting to sit up, but regretting the action soon after as terrible pain lanced through me, mostly steaming from my stomach. I grimaced and promptly laid back down, the pain dulling slightly, but still ever present, throbbing like you wouldn't imagine. "Ok, that was a bad idea..." I groaned, closing my eyes against the pain.

"I'm sorry..." Opening my eyes again, I saw that Layla had her eyes clamped shut, tears falling freely from them.

Slowly I reached over and wiped away some of the tears from my sister's cheek. "Hey," I began quietly, "I thought I was supposed to be the cry baby between the two of us."

She laughed ever so slightly and held my hand to her face. "But you always hated when I called you that." She whispered.

I shrugged, trying to ignore the pain that it induced from my bad shoulder. "I'll make an exception just this once."

"I really am sorry though." She said quietly, looking away.

"You shouldn't be. If you think about it, none of this would've happened if I hadn't made the promise with you. I also shouldn't have assumed that you knew what my being host meant." I told her.

"But-" Layla began, but was cut off.

"Let's just agree that it's all our faults, shall we?" Looking over, I spotted Romaji just closing a window, as if he had just climbed through it.

"All of us? What in the world did you do wrong, Romaji?" Layla asked.

Romaji waited until he claimed the second chair that was by my bed for himself before answering. "I was supposed to take care of you two. Neglecting to confirm that Layla wasn't confused on the terms of your position, Lass, was more of my fault then of yours."

I sighed. "You would say that."

He grinned. "Naturally. Now the best thing to do now would be just to admit that we are all at fault here somehow and just forgive and forget."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"But," Layla said, still frowning, "I nearly killed you! How could you possibly forgive me for that?"

I waved it off. "Don't worry about it sis. I seem to have an affinity for nearly getting myself killed in general. Just ask Arme, she'll tell you how many times it's been." To my count, including this time, it had only been three, but if making it seem like more would make my sister feel better, then so be it. I just didn't want her to keep on hating herself because of it.

"You sure?" She asked.

"Of course. The only thing I care about is that you are back to yourself." I replied, nodding as best I could.

Layla smiled. "Thank you, brother."

"And the family's back together again!" Romaji exclaimed happily. He grinned. "It's about time too."

A bell chimed, and I blinked. "Where did that come from...?" I wondered aloud. I thought that had only been part of the dream. The bell chimed again. "Wait..." I reached in the blankets with my good hand and pulled out my tail. Sure enough, there was bell attached to a pink string tied on. I sighed. "Let me guess, Amy did this, didn't she?" I asked, a bit exasperated.

Layla giggled a bit. "If you mean that pink haired girl then yes."

"Wait, when did you get a tail?!" Romaji asked incredulously. "And those ears! You didn't have those the last time I saw you!"

"Er, well, let's just say that Arme had a bit of a magic mishap..." I replied, but not quite willing to retell the tale of how I came to have my cat body parts.

Romaji then burst out laughing. "Well I guess that 's what you get for living with a mage!" After a few moments he calmed down, his grin back in place. "Well I think it suits you! Now we can have a better reason to call you Lassy, right Layla?"

"Yep!" My sister said happily.

"Ugh. You two are terrible." I muttered as I slid the bell off of my tail and letting it drop to the floor. I was not about to let something pink be attached to any part of me.

Romaji looked as if he was about to say more, but was cut of when a commotion could be heard not too far away.

"C'mon Arme you haven't slept in two days you need to get some rest!" A male voice said, sounding slightly exasperated, coming from just outside the healer's ward. That voice could belong to no one else but Ronan.

"But I have to go see him! What if he's gotten worse? Or what if he's woken up and all alone? I have to make sure he's alright!" And that voice had to be Arme's.

"Last I checked Layla was keeping watch over him. I'm sure she would've alerted someone if Lass had gotten worse." Ronan informed, his voice and Arme's getting closer with every passing second. "I'm sure she'll tell us when he wakes up. Besides, do you really think that Lass will be very happy with you if he learns that you've exhausting yourself?"

"Ohhh I don't care!" And with that said, I saw Arme march through the entrance, looking tired but determined, with Ronan not too far behind, looking as exasperated as he sounded. It didn't take long for Arme to notice my conscious state. Within seconds she was at my bed, hugging me as best she could with me laying down. She didn't say anything for a few minutes, but when she did, she sounded a mix between incredibly relieved and mad. "You big jerk." She whispered.

"Heh, sorry for worrying you so much Arme." I said quietly.

"You better be." She muttered before sitting up, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"It's good to see that you've finally woken up." Ronan said, standing behind Layla and Romaji. "Now would you please tell Arme that it's alright to get some sleep?"

I looked at the mage. "Have you really been depriving yourself of sleep?" I asked her.

She looked away. "Maybe..."

"Of course she has. She's got this terrible habit that whenever you are unconscious and in here, she'll stay up until you wake up. It's near impossible to get her to relent and get some sleep. This time around I've only managed to get her to get some rest every few days or so."

"How long exactly was I out?"

"Two weeks, give or take a few days."

I looked back at Arme. "You know you really shouldn't deprive yourself of sleep like that, Arme. It can't be good for you. Besides, I'm too stubborn to let death take me that easily. So you really shouldn't worry too much." I grinned a little. "But then again, when it comes to worry, you seem to be able to actually rival Romaji. So knowing him it's probably pointless to tell you not to worry."

"Hey, I don't worry _that_ much." Romaji protested.

"No, you would just stay up with either one or both of us when we were sick no matter how long just to make sure that we were ok and didn't need anything." Layla stated.

I nodded. "Exactly. It didn't need to be anything serious either, it could just be something as simple as a mild stomach ache." I added.

Romaji shook his head. "_Now_ who's the terrible ones?" He asked.

"Well at least I don't stay up for something so simple." Arme stated, folding her arms across her chest.

"Maybe that's because you don't know when something 'that simple' as you put it happens, hmm?" I think Romaji said, but I wasn't sure as exhaustion caught up with me once again. In an odd way their bickering was soothing, lulling me off to sleep.

//////////////

It was about a week later, and I was at least allowed to sit up in bed now. Joy. But what I would really like is to be out of this place and moving around again. After all, there is only so many times you can count the ceiling tiles before you start to get a little restless. I had tried to sneak off a few times already, and one of two things (or on occasion both), would stop me; one being Arme, fully expectant of my escape attempts, and the second being my legs giving out on me, as my strength had not yet returned in full. I swear, I'll never loose so much blood again...

But at least when Arme would stop me from escaping she would try to provide some form of entertainment. A few time she had brought books to look through, while others she would bring some sort of game. The first time I had tried to escape, though, was different then all the rest as she had pulled my tail, stating it was punishment for getting myself so injured in the first place and worrying her so much, and had then promptly dragged me back to my bed in the healer's ward before leaving me with my boredom.

Although we still had yet to decided about Layla...

"I was thinking that I would go take up Romaji's offer to stay with him." My sister stated one day. "After all I don't really want to be a burden here, and he could probably use some help running that shop of his..."

"That's fine, sis. If that's what you really want to do, then I won't stop you. Just promise you'll come visit once and awhile." I said.

She smiled. "Thank you, brother. Romaji said we can whenever I like, but do you want to me to stay until you're released from here? You always seem so bored when ever I come to see you."

"Nah, go ahead and go. I'll be fine. Besides, I've got this great new escape-"

"You got what exactly hmmm?" Came Arme's voice from the entrance.

"Er...nothing?" I replied, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"uh huh uh huh sure..." Arme said, clearing not believing me. I sighed. Oh well...

Layla laughed a bit before hugging me. "Thanks for everything, brother." She whispered to me.

I smiled before returning the hug. "Of course, any time, sis."

She released me and turned to leave. "See ya later then brother. I'll be around before you know it!" She said happily before taking off.

I couldn't help but smile as I laid down for a little cat nap, content. Everything would finally, be alright.

* * *

Ok ok and there's the Epilogue done. I didn't really forget about Layla, even it it might've seemed that way last chapter. Technically, last chapter _is_ the end of this story, but there are a lot of books I've read where the story ends, it even says 'The End' and all, but you turn the page and there the Epilogue. So thus we have this. A few notes though: Where Layla got drunk off of potions, I actually got that idea from something that happened in real life a while ago (it was a few years ago but still), where my sister ate one too many cough drops and get _really_ loopy. The second note being that I got where Lass like his ears rubbed from my own cat, Artie. He always seems to love a good ear rub :) Anywho, it's bye bye for real this time on this story, but I still have one-shots to finish and post up. Although there's a bad thing about the one-shots you know. I get half way through writing one and other presents itself in my head so I have to go and write it down before I forget, and then another idea comes and, well, the cycle just keeps continuing. I have about six of them save on my comp right now...

And btw, random fact, I love my reviewers! It always makes me happy to know that this story is liked :)

**Oh yes, and before I forget** I have a question made of pure curiosity for whoever has read both this and the one-shots. Do you prefer the first-person style used in this story, or do you think the third-person style in the one-shots is better? Just pure curiosity, although it might influence how I right this next story that was meant to be a one-shot but is quickly developing into it's own separate story, multi-chapter and everything. Anywho, ta ta for now, see ya in the one-shots!

-Xire


End file.
